Being at the FIA Formula E in Berlin, The Girls Who – Motorsport had the opportunity to speak with Gabriele Minì ahead of his rookie test. We asked him everything, from future opportunities to the best advice he has ever gotten.
It was not the first time that the Italian driver stepped into the Gen3 Evo car for a rookie test. Testing with the Nissan Formula E Team again, Gabriele Minì was eager to go at it again in Berlin and happy to work with the engineer: “I’m looking forward to trying and giving great feedback. I really show my pace. I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job in the other test, so we’ll try to do the same again.”
With his second position during the Jeddah Rookie Test, he certainly impressed a lot of people. Minì went fastest in the morning and afternoon session. With his best time being 57.428, he was fastest by 0.226.
Racing Escapade
Despite his good results, Formula E is not something that the Formula 2 driver is looking at at the moment. Nonetheless, he doesn’t close the door completely on the idea: “I want to try my shot at reaching my dream to go into Formula 1. But of course in the future, if it could not be the case, then yes, Formula E is one of the options.” Currently he is still in a Formula 1 feeder series. But as with most young drivers with his talent, he could reach his dream, if the right opportunity comes to him.
Like in every motorsport category, there are some rules and things that you can’t do while being in the car. But if everything was permitted, Gabriele Minì would enjoy himself doing some donuts on track: “With the amount of torque and power these cars have […] that would be a fun thing probably. But sadly, we are not allowed.”
Personal Reflection
Even though his Formula 2 debut is not brilliant and definitely not what the Alpine Junior driver had in mind. The 20-years-old driver shows determination to reach his goal as he shared his favourite advice that was given to him: “Maybe the best is that it’s not over until it’s really over. Sometimes, you think it’s done, that the championship is done after three rounds. But you know, maybe then, you win on the last corner of the last lap, which happened to me twice in karting.”
We moved from the future to the past. Gabriele Minì spoke about the advice he’d offer his younger self: “Just be calm. Just don’t rush things. It’s a mistake that I have made in the past, you learn from it. But, if somebody would have told me then you know, certains things wouldn’t have happened and I could have changed the outcome. But once again, this is what we call experience, you know, the mistakes that we do.”
Watch the full interview with Gabriele Minì now on YouTube to hear more about his journey in Formula E.