In his first full Formula 2 season, Gabriele Minì had the opportunity to continue his partnership with Prema Racing while learning the intricacies of an F2 car. Despite some unfortunate moments this 2025 season, Minì managed to collect important points for his maiden year in F2.
Currently, the Prema driver sits twelfth in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. With 35 points in total, his best result came from the Belgian GP weekend. As the final four rounds of 2025 are approaching, Minì gave an overview of his experience in F2.
Car set-up preferences
Each driver has their own way of driving and need the car to be able to match their requirements. Furthermore, the general set-up of a car during an F2 weekend can make or break Qualifying and the races. In an interview with the official website, Gabriele Minì spoke of the need for a car with a strong front end to give him the feel he needs.
“It’s a bit hard to say what my driving style is, but I like a car that turns quite well. I just feel like I need that front. It’s always up to driver preference, but I prefer a car that turns quite well.
“This all comes from karting. In some ways, I have always had set-ups like this. So I am used to that now, and now I prefer it that way,” admitted the Italian, highlighting the shaping that happens to drivers in their karting years.
Moreover, Minì shared his appreciation for testing days in motorsport. He went on to emphasise the way a team and a driver work with each other through them in order to find the perfect set-up.
However, finding a nailed on balance is not always possible every weekend.
“I guess it’s why testing is good, to try and work with the team to get the car like that. But, also in a way, it’s on the driver to adapt. For some reason, you can’t have that set-up, and then the goal has to be to adapt to the balance. It’s not always easy, but that is what testing is for.”
Braking and balance
While the speed of the car is one of the most important aspects in racing, it is not the only thing that wins you a race. Gabriele Minì has experience in championship battles from F3, yet his 2025 season in F2 proved how important trust is when competing.
Nevertheless, the trust comes from faith in the car’s consistency when braking and the overall balance. According to the Prema driver, the F2 machinery puts a driver in a position where braking last and hard is the way to go.
“In terms of braking, it’s again hard to say. The F2 car requires a very specific way of driving. You need to be very aggressive with the braking. As late as possible, really aggressive.”
Furthermore, Minì went on to explain the need for a well-balanced F2 car:
“But it’s also based on the balance once again. If you can’t drive the way you want, or you have to drive it in a specific way. It’s really a heavy car, and it’s not easy. So there is a proper technique, and you drive it in the way that is quickest.”
Additionally, a good driver can be affected by the intricacies of tyre degradation or track conditions. The Italian takes these aspects into consideration when preparing his Prema car for race weekends.
“It also depends on the tyres and the conditions. You can’t really afford to put too much the brakes. Especially with the harder tyres, for example, because we will lock up. So it depends a lot on the wind, track conditions, the type of corner and the setup.”
Qualifying across series
As he was a championship contender in his second season in F3, Minì learned a thing or two about the importance of a fast lap when it matters. The Italian talked about the fun he gets to have during Qualifying, when fuel is at a minimum and the car is at its fastest on circuit.
“Overall, I think it’s much more enjoyable in quali. You have much more speed you can carry. In the races, you need to drive smoothly and save things a bit, while in quali, you can use everything in that lap.”
His 2025 season is coming to an end, and that makes Gabriele Minì quite qualified to speak on the differences between series. The driver recognised the more forgiving aspects of the F3 machinery, while pointing out the tyre management knowledge he acquired in the series.
“The thing is in F3, we have really soft tyres and they grain. So you learn quite a lot to save, and after you need to adjust a bit. It’s more for the temperature rather than wear itself most of the time. So it’s not an easy thing to do. But I think that now it’s not too hard to learn tyre management because we are coming from F3.”
His experience with Prema Racing across two single-seater categories helped him figure out the secret to a great weekend. According to Gabriele Minì, his 2025 season in F2 depended immensely on the Free Practice session.
“For Qualifying, it all starts in FP. The work you do there is really key. You are trying to build up the weekend lap by lap, so since we have very few laps before quali, compromising FP can compromise your weekend quite a lot.”
Pushing for greatness in Qualifying
While figuring out the bases in FP is key, Qualifying sets the order for both the Sprint and the Feature race. The Italian driver gave his point of view during Qualifying sessions with Prema, where the second push matters most when track conditions are at their peak:
“In quali, it’s a lot different in terms of conditions. So the goal is trying to have a banker lap on the first push and then to put it all together for the second push.
“It’s not always like that, it’s not always easy. So it’s that last push we need to put everything together, trying to be in the top five. Or at least the top 10 to be in the reverse grid,” said Minì, underlining the pressure and difficulties in his 2025 F2 campaign.
“At the beginning of the year, I was quite strong in quali. It was our friend.”
Lessons learned
A hard decision to make when racing is finding the balance between pushing hard and losing out to penalties. Gabriele Minì noticed the need to leave a small margin in some instances.
“Also, leaving margin at times can be important. But it depends on the corner. There are some that, if you push too much, you get penalised, some not so much. I think the ones that you are going to get penalised, they are the ones you leave a bit.”
Racing in F2 is all about learning when you can go for that gap. His final statement showed exactly how thought-out those decisions actually are. Minì recognised that these thoughts about margins usually follow F2 drivers after they start their laps.
“But it’s not easy to decide where or to choose which one. If you feel like you are going to lose the car, you take some margin. But I don’t think anybody goes into the lap and says, ‘This corner I am going to take some margin’. You go into the lap and see how it is. At least that’s what I do.”
