Gabriele Minì owned Day 2 of Formula 2 pre-season testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, planting PREMA Racing’s flag atop the timesheets with a searing 1:23.660 in the morning. The Italian’s pace held firm—ART’s Ritomo Miyata trailed by seven tenths—while MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe snagged the afternoon honors at 1:24.372 over Hitech’s Dino Beganovic. For Minì, it’s more than numbers; it’s proof PREMA’s claws are sharpening after a rocky 2024.
“It was a very positive day,” the 19-year-old Alpine Academy driver said, stepping from his cockpit post-checkered flag. “Already yesterday we showed really good pace, P2 in the morning with only one set of tyres and one lap after a long break. And then P2 in the afternoon with what felt like very good potential. We were also fast in the race simulations which was positive. Today again we were very strong straight away on the first set of option tyres. We did a laptime good enough for P1 and then later on I managed to improve it. So, a very good day. PREMA has been working very hard over the winter, and I have been too. They came up with what seems to be a very good package, so I’m very happy about this. The race simulation was very positive so happy with today.”
Morning chaos set the stage—five red flags chopped the rhythm. Richard Verschoor’s 1:26.304 led early, until Trident’s Max Esterson stalled at Turn 2. Soft tires flew on, Rodin’s Alexander Dunne sniping P1 with a 1:25.191, edging Minì by 0.115s. Verschoor fired back at 1:24.565, but Minì’s 1:23.709 stole it—then 1:23.660 locked it. Campos’ Josep María Martí and Arvid Lindblad spun into gravel, Invicta’s Leonardo Fornaroli and DAMS’ Jak Crawford followed suit. AIX’s Joshua Duerksen (0.262s off) and Miyata hung close, but Minì stood tall.
Afternoon flipped to long runs—Goethe’s 1:24.372 held over Beganovic (0.052s back) and Verschoor. A debris snag at the final corner and Trident’s Sami Meguetounif stalling on the straight waved two late reds, freezing the order. Minì eased off—P16 at 1:28.905—focus elsewhere. “It’s a good thing because I know it’s only testing and it doesn’t really matter whether you’re P1 or P22 in the end, but I can tell you that it’s better to be fast,” he said. “We know that especially here in Barcelona, maybe the race pace was not as good as the qualifying pace, so during the winter we’ve been working quite hard and believe we’ve managed to fix it. Now we’ll have to wait until the race weekends to confirm it, but it’s going very well at the moment.”
Minì’s not chasing headlines—teamwork trumps times. “I didn’t really care about our position coming here, I think the thing that matters most is to work well, to learn with the team and get on with them, which we already do,” he said. “I understand and work well with the team in general, and with my driving. Being fast, it means we’ve done those things well. But even if we’re fast, the most important thing is to work with the team well during these tests.” A P3 in Baku last year—his F2 cameo—lit the fuse; now he’s molding his style. “The weekend in Baku helped a lot, having a teammate who’d done all the testing last year and the season up to then – it was good to see the differences between the F3 and F2, even though it was for a very limited number of laps. But at the moment, I’m finding my feet quite well. I had to change my driving style quite a lot and that’s what I’ve been working on over the winter, but at the moment I’m feeling quite good with it.”
Day 3 looms—rain’s rumored. “It should rain overnight but not sure if it will rain tomorrow. But we expect a wet track like we had the other morning with the fog,” Minì said. “If it rains, we aren’t expecting many cars out in the first part of the morning. But most of the teams have used all of their tyres, maybe there are some with some tyres left. But it would be good to be able to drive in the wet because I’ve not had the chance to drive or test anything in the wet. So, getting some laps on a wet track would be good. We will see in the afternoon if it’ll dry out.” Wet or dry, he’s game—PREMA’s rebound starts here.
