Bortoleto was rewarded with F1 promotion for 2025, but his rookie season has been quite an adjustment process, having made his grand prix debut with Sauber, the team who ended 2024 dead last in the constructors\u2019 championship.<\/p>\n
Sauber have generally had the slowest package in the 2025 F1 field, though a big upgrade at the Spanish Grand Prix helped Nico Hulkenberg <\/a>land the team\u2019s best result of the season, and only their second points finish.<\/p>\n Bortoleto is yet to score his first points in F1<\/a>, registering a best finish of 12th in Barcelona, but he has done a very respectable job against his vastly experienced teammate across the first opening nine grands prix, particularly in qualifying.<\/p>\n Speaking exclusively to Crash.net<\/a> ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Bortoleto rather reluctantly gave himself an \u201c8.5\/9\u201d out of 10 when asked to rank how his first F1 season was going.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m quite happy with what I\u2019ve been doing this year. Obviously it\u2019s not the position we want to be [in],\u201d Bortoleto said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is still a lot to play with. We believe we deserve to be fighting for points at least but we are not quite there yet as a team. But I\u2019m quite happy with what I\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I\u2019ve been performing very well in qualifying sessions. I still need to make some progress in the race, understanding a bit better the situations in race conditions through the whole race.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think this comes with experience and I am going to get there. But it has been so far very good. I have quite decent pace so that makes me happy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not struggling with that so far and hopefully we can keep going like this and when we have a competitive car we will be fighting for bigger things.\u201d<\/p>\n Bortoleto scored his best result in F1 at the Spanish GP<\/p>\n Asked what he has found to be the biggest challenge in stepping up from F2 to F1, Bortoleto replied: \u201cDealing with everything Formula 1 is!<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so many things. So many things involved. Saving the energy through the weekends. The weekends here are quite busy.<\/p>\n “There is so much media stuff to attend, so many sponsor things to attend for the team. A lot of data information that we have in the car, more than F2, so we need to study more in that sense.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of different things in Formula 1 but I\u2019m getting used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Adapting to a big mindset change<\/strong><\/p>\n For Bortoleto, the challenge of helping push Sauber up the F1 pecking order ahead of their transition into Audi next year has required a big mindset switch.<\/p>\n For the past two seasons, Bortoleto, a protege of Fernando Alonso<\/a>, rarely finished outside of the top 10 and he ended a championship-crowning 2024 campaign with two victories and eight podium finishes.<\/p>\n In F1, Bortoleto has had to get used to the feeling of not being able to fight for wins or front-running positions, something he admits has been \u201cquite a big challenge\u201d but one he has \u201cbeen dealing with quite well\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when you fight you for wins, you get used to the feeling of winning and it\u2019s addictive,\u201d Bortoleto explained. \u201cThat\u2019s a feeling that you never want to lose because winning is great. You know you are doing a great job.<\/p>\n “When you are not winning it just feels like you are always lacking something. In this position we are right now, we are far from winning and we still need to make a lot of steps to get there.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what makes me confident about the journey is the project we have ahead of us with Audi and everything we can achieve as a team, together with Nico [Hulkenberg] next year.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I\u2019m really excited for that and looking forward to winning again one day, hopefully soon, and to have that feeling of standing up on the car and celebrating something big.\u201d<\/p>\n Bortoleto speaks to Crash.net’s Lewis Larkam<\/p>\n Bortoleto beat Racing Bulls\u2019 Isack Hadjar<\/a> to the F2 title last year and also finished ahead of Mercedes\u2019 Kimi Antonelli <\/a>but now finds himself unable to battle with either.<\/p>\n He arguably has the toughest job out of F1 2025\u2019s rookie contingent, so is he frustrated?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to say it\u2019s frustrating because I\u2019m glad of the opportunity to be in Formula 1,\u201d he responded to that question.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of drivers that would love to be in my position right now and it doesn\u2019t matter what position they would finish in the race. So it\u2019s not frustrating.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s tough to see everyone you\u2019ve raced your whole life, guys that I\u2019ve raced last year and the previous year and I beat them.<\/p>\n \u201cTo see them doing well, I\u2019m happy for them because it proves I was beating these people and they are doing well in Formula 1, they are great drivers and I have huge admiration for these guys, and I know I can do that.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s just about having patience. This has been the biggest learning I\u2019ve had this year, having patience and waiting because my time will come.\u201d<\/p>\n Bortoleto can take heart from the likes of Leclerc and Russell, both of whom started out in F1 towards the back but are now considered two of the best drivers on the grid.<\/p>\n \u201cDefinitely I think having tough years, they are needed to become a better driver and person,\u201d Bortoleto said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I could, I would like to be already fighting for podiums, for wins, for points more constantly at least. That has not been the case yet.<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge Russell had a very tough first year, I don\u2019t think he scored a single point, and look where he is right now. People don\u2019t remember that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is important is that one day I get to level and then I\u2019ll be happy with where I am going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabriel Bortoleto is used to winning and fighting at the sharp end. The 20-year-old Brazilian won the Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,4858,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-170668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sauber","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114654318661455604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bortoleto](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/XPB_1351303_HiRes.jpg\")
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