Photo: Prema
Prema’s Gabriele Mini has revealed the key factor that consigned him to a season of struggles in Formula 2 this year.
The Italian began his F2 career last year in Baku and made the podium on debut, then he started 2025 with a pole position.
But he came 13th in the standings with no top-five finishes in feature races until the last three rounds in Asia. He ended the year with a podium from 13th on the grid.
“To be honest, I did not expect to be here today,” he said after finishing third in the Abu Dhabi feature race.
“It was just an amazing first lap. I gained seven positions, I was already up to P6 after the first lap. And then it was just all about taking care of the tyres, good overtakes, and managing till the end.”
Mini’s average starting position for feature races was 10.7, and his median starting position was 12th. But he reaped little benefit from reversed grids, with his points tally from sprint races the 12th highest in the field.
“Of course it’s not been what we wanted or what we expected, especially after such a strong first part after [pole in] Australia,” dwelled the Italian.
“We had been very quick in all testing, very quick on the first race weekend. Both the quali, being on pole, and in the first race gaining a lot of places. So we were expecting to stay there. But it didn’t happen. We had many ups and downs really.
“Every time we could fight for some points, something was happening. So either engine breakdown or a slow stop, which made us lose a lot of points. And ultimately what we missed was always the step from free practice to qualifying. Because even this weekend we were fastest almost every lap in FP. In the end we finished P2. And then already from the first lap of quali we were missing quite a lot, and for the second set it was even more. That’s what we’ve been missing really to fight for the front.”
Mini felt “it’s hard to” assess his improvements but his final race showed “quite a good learning” through 2025.
“For sure one thing that I’ve improved, I feel like it’s the first lap. Positioning, racecraft and stuff like this,” he added.
Ending the season with a podium was “really, really important, both for me going into the next plans and the future, and also for the team” as Prema came sixth in the standings.
“We’ve been working really hard, it’s not like we surrendered at some point. We’ve still been working very hard, adding some extra simulator days to test more stuff and more things. Even for me to learn more and try different things. And I feel like even though the season hasn’t been great, but we still – because of the hard work and everything we’ve done – deserved it.
“So I think it’s amazing to end with a podium, especially not starting from the front.”