We have now reached the eve of first weekend of Formula 3, the young Italian talent Gabriel Mini was interviewed by Sky Sports. From the memories of how the passion for racing was born victory of the first race in a Formula 3 single-seater in Monaco, then continuing with the return to Prema and the targets for 2024Here's what he said.
Who is Gabriele Minì?
Born in Palermo on 20 March 2005, Gabriel Mini he is an all-Italian talent in the world of motorsport. Interviewed by Sky Sports, Mini says: “My parents as a child they gave me a go-kart and I started driving it. It all started for fun, I don't think there was a particular moment when I decided I wanted to be a pilot, I just followed what I liked".
An life always dedicated to four wheels, that of Gabriele, who remembers: “My father also raced on the track: when I wasn't on the go-karts I went to watch his races and I saw the cars whizzing by“. When asked if he has ever taken apart and reassembled a car or even designed a single-seater with the help of his father, Mini replies: “We never thought of designing a single-seater, but we have always worked together in the workshop".
As regards the results obtained in his career, the young driver boasts several successes like the championship victory of Italian Formula 4 with the Prema team in 2020. In 2022 took home the vice champion medal of the European Regional Formula driving the single-seater of the French team ART Gran Prix. Results that did not go unnoticed, but which captured the interest of Alpine F1 Academy which included it in its pilot program starting from 2023.
2023, his first season in Formula 3
Mini ha debuted in the preparatory category last season with the team HitechGP, alongside Sebastian Montoya and Luke Browning. He immediately proved competitive, obtaining in Bahrain not only the first pole position of the year, but also the first of his Formula 3 career. On Sunday he then crossed the finish line in first position, but following one penalty he is forced to give up the winner's cup to Gabriel Bortoleto and others relegated to eighth place. When asked about the biggest disappointment of the past season, Minì replies: “Certainly the race in Bahrain, the penalty took away a first place we achieved on the track, it was painful".
In Australia the pilot of Alpine F1 Academy gets his first podium of the season coming third. TO Monaco, Mini make a dream come true, first obtaining the pole position and then managing to transform it into a fantasy first place in the Feature Race of the principality. During the Sky Sport interview, Mini confessed: “If I had the chance to choose for a single victory during the year, I would choose the race of Monaco. After what happened in Bahrain, we made up for it with the victory in Monaco and the podium in Melbourne: it was a fantastic start to the season".
Gabriele returns to the podium at the Red Bull Ring, this time in second place and then returns again to victory in Hungary. Minì thus ends his first season in Formula 3 at seventh place of the general classification, also closing the chapter with the Hitech team to return "home". The young Italian driver will take part in the 2024 Formula 3 season with According to Racing, the team with which he made his F2020 debut in 4.
During the Sky Sport interview, Mini states: "I want to win the championship"
Like many athletes, also Gabriele Minì It has rituals that follows before each race, even if he admits: “I'm not particularly superstitious, I have habits. I tighten my shoes on the left wheel or I always go up from the left side, but I don't do it out of good luck, just out of habit".
Future in Formula 1? Gabriele replies: “Should your career in motorsport go well, I hope to arrive one day in F1, but it's not easy. Otherwise I will change path and graduate. I think one is the consequence of the other".
Returning to the present, the 18-year-old driver is asked what it feels like to return to Prema and he states: “I'm going back to my family, with Prema I won Formula 4 in 2020“. The Sky Sport interview ends with the question "In 2024 Gabriele Mini wants?” and he immediately exclaims: “Winning the championship!".
STATEMENTS SOURCE: Sky Sport F1
