Meet the first Brazilian to race full time in Formula One since 2017 as Bortoleto follows in the footsteps of Fittipaldi and Senna.
Starting Out
You may be familiar with the name and what he has achieved so far in his career but who is Gabriel Bortoleto?
Born in São Paolo in 2004, Gabriel Bortoleto first started racing in karts when he was eight years old. After honing his craft there, Bortoleto made his single seater debut in Italian F4 back in 2020. He finished in fifth place overall.
In 2021, Bortoleto graduated to the Formula Regional European Championship. He spent the next two years here, securing two wins from 40 races. This resulted in a finishing position of sixth place in the Driver’s Standings in 2022.
Formula Regional Asian Championship
For Bortoleto, this was enough to make the next step up in motorsport and compete in the Formula Regional Asian Championship. Racing in only the first six races of the campaign, the Brazilian still managed to win the second race of the campaign in Abu Dhabi.
From those six races, he suffered from only one retirement in Dubai. All of his other races resulted in Bortoleto scoring points. Despite not competing in the remainder of the season, the Brazilian managed to finish in P14 with 46 points overall.
A familiar name that also only competed for six races was (Super Sub and 2025 Haas F1 Driver) Ollie Bearman. Measured up against one another, Bortoleto beat Bearman with his aforementioned 46 points to Bearman’s 29.
Bortoleto also bested then future teammate and 2024 Formula 3 Champion Leonardo Fornaroli who competed in nine races over the season. Moreover, Bortoleto finished ahead of full time competitors with recognizable names such as Oliver Goethe and the Al Qubaisi sisters.
P14 at the season’s end saw Bortoleto less than 20 points away from P9 in the Championship. A champion of the future was clearly being forged.
Bortoleto joins Formula 3
Bortoleto drove for Trident in Formula 3 in 2023. Partnered by Goethe and Fornaroli, the trio secured second place for the outfit in the Team Standings, just 19 Points away from PREMA in first.
When it came to the Driver’s Championship however, there wasn’t anybody close to Bortoleto. There was a 45 point gap back to Zak O’Sullivan in P2 and his teammates weren’t able to hold a candle to him either. Goethe finished the year with 75 Points and Fornaroli with 69, putting them in P8 and P11 respectively. The Brazilian had taken an important step in his rise to the top.
Impressively, Bortoleto managed to win the Championship by such a margin with only two victories all year. These came back to back for him at the start of the season in the Bahrain and Australian Feature Races. He went on to score a further four second places finishes across Europe well as three fastest laps in Bahrain, Hungary and Monza and a single pole position in Australia.
Even more impressively, Bortoleto only had three non-point scoring finishes. One of these came in the form of his only DNF of the year. This occurred in Spa thanks to Dino Beganovic when the Swedish Bosnian driver tapped the rear end of Bortoleto’s Trident. This subsequently supplied him with enough damage to force him to retire from the race.
Bortoleto Wins in Formula 2
Naturally, for 2024, Bortoleto moved within a heartbeat of Formula One by heading into Formula 2. Driving for Invicta Racing alongside Kush Maini, the duo claimed first place for the Team in the Standings – their highest result since 2021.
Bortoleto’s first Formula 2 victory came in Austria. Here, he was fittingly handed the winner’s trophy by none other than 1972 and 1974 Formula 1 World Champion and fellow Brazilian, Emmerson Fittipaldi.
The second and final win for the young Brazilian came at Monza. Put simply, it was one of the best performances in the history of Formula 2. After crashing out in qualifying on Friday, Bortoleto started Sunday’s Feature Race from the back of the pack. But through a combination of excellent strategy by the team and faultless driving by Bortoleto, he managed to carve a path through the entire field until he ended up leading the race! Bortoleto went on to secure victory with apparent ease and completed his redemption arc that had begun at the start of the weekend.
“Having started in 22nd position, Gabriel Bortoleto takes the win! Last to first in Monza for the boy from Brazil!” – Alex Jacques
Mr Consistency
A further six podium finishes (five P2s and one P3) helped to propel him up to the top of the standings once the dust had settled in Abu Dhabi. All this came at a time where he was being pushed hard by main title rival, Isack Hadjar.
Hadjar had looked like the favourite for the title at times. But Bortoleto’s sheer consistency and ability to remain calm under pressure proved to make all the difference in beating the young Frenchman.
Of the twenty eight races across fourteen rounds, Hadjar only scored points in both races across a weekend on four occasions. Bortoleto achieved this ten times. Two fastest laps in Spa and Baku alongside two pole positions in Bahrain and Imola also added to his points tally, meaning that Bortoleto would finish 22.5 points ahead of Hadjar in P2.
Bortoleto – the next Professor?
Every point counts in motorsport and across both Feeder Series, Bortoleto has shown that he understands the importance in performing at every stage of a race weekend.
Over the course of the entire 2024 season, of the races he finished, Bortoleto only had three non-point scoring results. A surprising lack of pace denied him in Saudi Arabia. An unexpected pit stop due to high degradation of the tyres proved to be too much for him to overcome in Budapest and the red flag coming out because of adverse weather conditions after four laps of racing in Spa prevented him from moving any further up the order there. All three of these are to an extent, unavoidable in racing and not a reflection of Bortoleto’s capabilities as a driver.
DNFS are inevitable too and in 2024, Bortoleto suffered from three in total, coming in Saudi Arabia and Australia. A broken Semi Axle, a hydraulic issue and getting taken out by Marti on the starting grid respectively caused each of these. Remarkably, he managed to avoid any further issues of this nature for the rest of the season.
But these negative results didn’t stop him. Even when he was on the backfoot, Bortoleto’s lowest finishing position was P16. By ensuring damage limitation when the victory was not attainable, Bortoleto was able to win the F3 and F2 Championships back to back. This has only been achieved before by the calibre of driver such as Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri. That fact speaks for itself.
Bortoleto ascends to Formula 1
The Formula 1 Post Season Test in Abu Dhabi was Bortoleto’s first time driving for Sauber. It is difficult to garner much from these sessions as all the participating drivers are usually on very different session plans. The final timed results for the day are often not an accurate reflection of the pecking order.
That being said, what do we know?
Bortoleto finished in P8 in the morning session and was given tyre access to those supplied for the prior race weekend. By the end of the day, he was P18 out of 23 with two Grand Prix distances under his belt. This broad nature of the test allowed Bortoleto to get to grips with the car and familiarise himself with the team and how everything works.
As simple as it might sound, getting to grips with the basics in Formula 1 is essential. Bortoleto didn’t crash or have any major hiccups and these are also encouraging signs. All of this also allows him to think and develop his preferences for aspects of set up – both in and out of the car – over the winter break and to go into that break feeling confident.
Bortoleto – the best of the bunch?
Four 2024 Formula 2 drivers will race in Formula 1 in 2025. Bortoleto, Antonelli, Hadjar and Bearman. Bortoleto is arguably the best of them. He dispatched Hadjar (in his second season, having finished in P14 the previous year) over a season thanks to his consistency and temperament. He annihilated Antonelli with his experience in racing. Every time Antonelli was on the podium, Bortoleto finished fourth. He finished 2024 over a hundred points ahead of the new Mercedes F1 Driver and finished almost 140 points ahead of Bearman.
Under Pressure?
But don’t expect Bortoleto to lead the way in 2025. He will be driving the weakest car on the grid and has less F1 experience than the other three. But, despite winning F3 and F2 back to back, Bortoleto has the least amount of expectation and pressure on his shoulders. Here’s why.
Hadjar is part of a ruthless Red Bull programme and has to prove himself against both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda. Bearman will be racing for a rejuvenated Haas and has already scored points for both them and Ferrari in Formula 1. Antonelli skipped F3 to race in Formula 2 so that he could then be catapulted into Formula 1 to replace Lewis Hamilton in one of the most successful F1 Teams in history – such is the expectation on the young Italian that he will perform when the time comes.
All Bortoleto has to do is score more than four points all year and he’ll have proven he’s more capable than both drivers that raced for Sauber in 2024. Bortoleto has managed to become the underdog and as a result, has the least to prove. He knows he deserves to be there thanks to his junior career and has a multi year deal with Sauber/Audi. Bortoleto will also have experienced veteran Nico Hulkenberg as his teammate coaching him which is sure to be incredibly beneficial.
Bortoleto – A Future Champion?
Will we see Bortoleto on any of the steps of the podium in 2025? It seems unlikely. But if we get a chaotic race, like in Brazil this year or in Hungary in 2021, keep your eyes on the Brazilian. If anyone will be able to take advantage against the odds, it’ll be him.
Featured Image by Stake F1 Team.