After an prolonged interval of mulling over its driving choices for System 1’s 2025 season and past, Sauber had discovered itself in a binary selection between expertise and youth. The Swiss outfit, which turns into Audi in 2026, has opted for the latter; Valtteri Bottas will depart the group on the finish of the yr, and F2 championship chief Gabriel Bortoleto will be part of within the Finn’s place.
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Sauber’s hiring of the promising Bortoleto offers Brazil one among its personal full-time F1 drivers to assist since Felipe Massa left the grid on the finish of 2017. Bortoleto joins an illustrious solid of names to hail from the South American nation: Emerson Fittipaldi, Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Carlos Tempo, Rubens Barrichello, et al, and can hope to have the possibility to string his personal legacy into F1’s wealthy tapestry – if he is in a position to rise up to hurry and impress, in fact.
That is the fruits of a whirlwind few years for Bortoleto, who scarcely featured on the radar of most within the F1 paddock till he began profitable races in System 3 – and, ultimately, the title – in his debut season. McLaren promptly snapped him up for its junior group, however was adamant that it will not stand in his method if an F1 seat grew to become out there. Because of his spectacular efficiency in F2 this yr, his first season within the second-tier class, that eventuality grew to become extra seemingly; ought to the Brazilian full the F2-F3 double, he’ll be part of the likes of Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri to attain that feat lately.
With Sauber, a group which is anticipated to stay in direction of the again in 2025 because it focuses on its preparation for the brand new ’26 components as Audi, Bortoleto has a low-pressure surroundings to be taught his commerce and a widely known benchmark in Nico Hulkenberg alongside him on the group.
Who’s Gabriel Bortoleto?
Gabriel Bortoleto, Trident
Picture by: System Motorsport Ltd
For these much less accustomed to the Paulista, let’s begin together with his oeuvre in motorsport to date. After racing in karts in each Brazil and Europe, he first stepped into the world of single-seaters with Prema for the 2020 Italian F4 season. He completed fifth that yr in a season received by Alpine junior Gabriele Mini, however earned a right away step as much as the System Regional European Championship for its first yr after merging with the System Renault Eurocup sequence.
His first yr in a extra highly effective automotive was a making an attempt one, becoming a member of Fernando Alonso’s FA Racing group – then in a partnership with MP Motorsport – and completed fifteenth total. The spotlight of that yr was his second-place end on the Crimson Bull Ring, the place he crossed the road inside three seconds of champion Gregoire Saucy. Bortoleto remained in contact with Alonso by means of his A14 administration steady, however switched to the extra aggressive R-ace GP squad to complete sixth total in his sophomore marketing campaign – claiming two wins at Spa and Barcelona.
Trident signed Bortoleto for the 2023 F3 season, however he was a relative outsider when it got here to the pre-season title discourse; Prema was well-stocked with expertise with a three-pronged entrance line of Paul Aron, Zak O’Sullivan and 2022 FRECA champion Dino Beganovic, MP Motorsport had future Williams driver Franco Colapinto on its books, Campos had second-year driver Pepe Marti, whereas Hitech had Mini, Sebastian Montoya and GB3 champion Luke Browning all vying for a title win.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Trident
Picture by: System Motorsport Ltd
In a aggressive season, Bortoleto’s consistency received out. He picked up second on the grid for the opening spherical in Bahrain, from which he took victory within the characteristic race when polesitter Mini was slapped with a five-place penalty for a beginning grid infringement. Subsequent, Bortoleto took pole on the following Melbourne spherical; within the reversed-grid dash he rose to sixth, however held his nerve from the entrance in Albert Park’s characteristic race to finish a lights-to-flag victory and take an early 20-point lead within the championship after 4 races.
Bortoleto didn’t win once more in 2023, however by no means as soon as relinquished the championship lead; the opposite title contenders took factors off one another, whereas the Trident driver scored in each race between his Bahrain characteristic win in March and Hungary’s characteristic race in July. The streak ended together with his retirement from the weird Spa-Francorchamps dash, through which there have been no consecutive laps of green-flag racing in damp circumstances, as Dino Beganovic locked up at La Supply and knocked Bortoleto’s left-rear tyre to trigger a race-ending puncture. He solely completed eleventh within the characteristic race, getting into the Monza finale 38 factors away from Aron within the title race.
He subsequently wrapped the title up qualifying for the Monza spherical as Aron didn’t get pole, and a formidable dash race served as his victory lap after ending second behind Colapinto. Aron’s Vitantonio Liuzzi tribute act into Flip 1 collected Jonny Edgar and Marti within the course of, because the Estonian narrowly missed Bortoleto. From eighth, the newly-crowned champion carved his method by means of the sector within the following 18 laps. The ultimate move on second-placed Mari Boya was a check of bravery; the Spaniard had him on the grass by means of Curva Grande, however Bortoleto held the road by means of the Variante della Roggia to finish the transfer.
Race winner Gabriel Bortoleto, Trident
Picture by: System Motorsport Ltd
Incomes McLaren assist for his first yr in F2, Bortoleto signed with the Invicta Racing outfit – previously often known as Virtuosi – to hitch Kush Maini on the squad. Maybe needing extra time to get its head across the new Dallara chassis, Invicta began the yr extra slowly versus the likes of Campos and Rodin. Bahrain was a stable first outing for Bortoleto, yielding factors finishes in each races after the Sao Paulo native took pole for the characteristic race, however a four-race stretch of no factors appeared to place his hopes of a first-year title on ice, beginning with a crash in qualifying at Jeddah that set him out of rivalry in Saudi Arabia.
Two weeks later, and beginning second within the Melbourne dash, Bortoleto was collateral within the conflict between Crimson Bull juniors Isack Hadjar and Marti, when Hadjar swiped throughout the pair of them off the road. Hydraulic points then yielded one other retirement within the characteristic race Down Beneath.
Bortoleto stalled the poor luck with a characteristic race pole on the Imola spherical in Might, taking second in Sunday’s race, and repeated that place in Monaco’s dash race per week later. It took till the top of June for him to report his first F2 win, which emerged by means of victory within the Crimson Bull Ring characteristic race. He was now simply 32 factors off the championship lead, held by Paul Aron.
However essentially the most spectacular side of his season to date was victory from twenty second on the grid within the Monza characteristic race. Bortoleto didn’t get a aggressive lap in throughout qualifying after a spin, and had already achieved the nearly-impossible feat of tying with Dennis Hauger for eighth in the course of the dash to earn each drivers some extent. Bortoleto was as much as 14th by the top of lap 5, after which cycled into the entrance whereas his fellow soft-tyre starters forward all pitted early doorways. When Hauger was pitched right into a spin at Flip 1 by a slight contact from Ritomo Miyata to deliver out a security automotive, Bortoleto might pit cheaply and returned to the circuit in sixth, and instantly threw collectively a sequence of quick-fire passes to take the lead – and, finally, a well-known victory.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Invicta Racing
Picture by: Invicta Virtuosi Racing
How did Bortoleto get the Sauber seat?
When Nico Hulkenberg was signed early doorways for Sauber in 2025, very a lot a call taken with the view of turning into an Audi works driver in 2026, the group had turned its consideration to wooing Carlos Sainz for the opposite automotive. However Sauber had been gazumped by Williams, as Sainz purchased into James Vowles’ imaginative and prescient for the group and wished to develop into a part of a venture that returned Williams to the entrance of the grid.
This put Sauber right into a protracted decision-making course of for the opposite seat, one which remained dynamic because it primarily waited to see how the market would fall. It knew that, if all else failed, it might retain Valtteri Bottas; Zhou Guanyu seemed to be out of luck, because the Chinese language driver has paled compared his extra skilled team-mate. Sauber additionally chased Esteban Ocon, however the Frenchman was useless set on becoming a member of Haas when his departure from Alpine was introduced.
With choices among the many established drivers beginning to run out, Bottas had moved forward within the race to retain his seat – though Bortoleto’s gathering momentum in F2 was beginning to mark him out as a gorgeous candidate.
Liam Lawson had been another choice, notably as soon as it appeared like Daniel Ricciardo had labored his method by means of the early threats to his RB drive, and the Kiwi was understood to be a free agent if Crimson Bull couldn’t grant him a drive in both of its two groups by the top of 2024. Ricciardo’s place then grew to become extra tenuous and was ousted after Singapore, taking Lawson out of the equation as he was promoted from his reserve function.
The type of newcomer Franco Colapinto threw one other spanner within the works. The Argentine had come into F1 with little expectation positioned upon his shoulders as Logan Sargeant’s alternative, however instantly made an impression in his opening outings with Williams. With no seat out there at 2025 with the Grove group, Vowles wished to sound out a possibility at Sauber and assist Colapinto stay on the grid, however the alleged curiosity from Crimson Bull’s Helmut Marko seems to have difficult issues.
Zhou Guanyu, Stake F1 Crew KICK Sauber C44, Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Crew KICK Sauber C44
Picture by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Pictures
Both method, Sauber seemingly wished a driver with no strings hooked up; Williams would have presumably stored Colapinto on a bungee twine in case Albon or Sainz had been unavailable or casting their nets elsewhere. McLaren had no such qualms over Bortoleto; though the group presumably want to preserve tabs on the Brazilian, it knew that it had Norris and Piastri underneath lock and key for the subsequent few years and thus couldn’t make spurious guarantees to maintain him.
Sauber additionally advised Mick Schumacher was an choice, given Mattia Binotto’s earlier relationship with the ex-Haas driver by means of the Ferrari Driver Academy. Whether or not this was significantly mooted stays unknown, however Binotto admitted that he was a minimum of “evaluating” Schumacher.
Bottas appeared assured {that a} deal could possibly be finished, however months have since handed and the group appeared no nearer to doing a cope with the Nordic mullet-owner for 2025. Though the championship positions don’t present this, Bottas has been effectively away from Zhou when it comes to total tempo – however the Swiss group’s penchant for bizarre methods within the imprecise hope of scoring its first level has masked total race efficiency.
As such, Bottas seems to be out of time. Sauber has seen the performances of Colapinto, Lawson, and Haas driver-elect Oliver Bearman and figured it is perhaps greatest to introduce a rookie to the celebration. Subsequent to Hulkenberg, Bortoleto has a transparent yardstick to measure as much as; if he can preserve tempo with the veteran German in his first yr, will probably be symbolic of a driver with a shiny future in F1.
What have folks stated about Bortoleto?
Fernando Alonso spoke extremely of his protege, noting that he was not afforded the identical alternatives as a few of his F2 and F3 counterparts. Though largely hidden from view, it’s recognized that a number of junior sequence drivers undertake testing in outdated equipment to achieve expertise of F2/F3-level automobiles, which Bortoleto has not been in a position to do.
“He is an unbelievable expertise and a really humble particular person as effectively – I feel that is the largest factor that we have to work on,” Alonso defined in September. “He is a tough employee except for his expertise, and I feel that is why in System 3 and System 2 he had this a lot progress. I feel additionally he is somebody that’s taking issues very significantly as effectively, which at that age isn’t a assure.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Crew, Race winner Gabriel Bortoleto, Trident
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Pictures
“On budgets and issues like that, he received the championship as a rookie in System 3, and he is preventing for the championship as a rookie in System 2, however with out the testing of many different rookies. So he is in all probability the one ‘rookie rookie’ within the championship. So this was an incredible achievement to date. And let’s examine what the longer term brings. But it surely’s a matter of time that he will get to F1.”
McLaren group boss Andrea Stella reckoned that Bortoleto’s success made it “very regular and pure” that different groups would have an interest, and defined that “McLaren won’t cease the chance for Gabriel to drive in System 1”. However maybe the largest endorsement got here from reigning champion Max Verstappen, who said that “if I used to be Sauber, I’d have signed him already” – and used 2025 as a preparation season. This, he added, would afford Bortoleto the possibility to get errors out of his system earlier than Audi is available in for the next yr.
“That is the longer term with younger drivers. And ‘26, a giant rule change, it is at all times good to get used to a group already for a yr, make your errors right here and there, get built-in effectively, and perceive the automotive a bit. You at all times really feel way more ready and cozy once you then begin in ‘26.”
