Photo: Dom Gibbons / Getty Images
Invicta Racing’s back-to-back title double in Formula 2 has brought “relief” and “a huge amount of pride” to team principal James Robinson.
Leonardo Fornaroli was crowned champion with a round to spare at Losail, while the battle to win the teams’ title went down to the final race.
“Relief is the first thing that springs to mind, and behind that is pride, a huge amount of pride for all the guys here who do an amazing job. But not just the guys here, but also the guys in the UK in Norfolk. We have our headquarters there. They work just as hard as anybody at the race track. I hope we can all share this [success] and enjoy it,” Robinson stated in conversation with Formula Scout.
“F2 is a spec formula, all the cars are the same. So to get a performance delta where you can win the championship back-to-back is pretty amazing. It is not unheard of, but it is very, very hard to do,” he remarked.
Robinson also had words of praise for his driver line-up, calling Fornaroli “exceptional from day one” and Roman Stanek “an immensely talented driver”.
“The thing he [Fornaroli] has and that you can’t really teach is the ability to deliver and execute excellent laptime when it really counts. And by that I mean in qualifying and around the pitstops during the race. We call it ‘Forna-note’ for a reason. It’s our version of ‘hammer time’. That’s something he is real unique at.
“Out of the four drivers I have worked with within this team the last two years, he is the best in that by far.
“[Stanek’s] understanding of the car, his ability to work with the engineers, his technical understanding of the vehicle is really second-to-none. He’s really good at articulating feedback to the engineers. He has built a phenomenal relationship with Colin [Sommerville], his engineer.
“They are both special talents, but also credit to the team. Because the team has done an exceptional job in extracting that talent.”
Robinson became team principal pre-season, then entered an ownership role alongside the Invicta Watch Group in March. But since 2024 was a title-winning campaign, only continuity was needed.
“In terms of how we operate, our culture, our philosophy, I’m not standing here taking any credit for that. That really was installed from what we got here. One thing I would say that we try from an Invicta perspective, what we really look to do is just install a philosophy of confidence.
“I really believe this team is the best in F2, which it is, and making sure that everyone buys into that.
“We have been able to keep the things that work well. We have just built on that really. It’s not really rocket science. We just try and do the simple things well. We try to concentrate on what is controllable. It is all cliche stuff, but it is true.”