Brilliant Bortoleto: F1 rookie earns Driver of the Day in best result of his career
Photo Credit: Italianismo.com
“He’s the best rookie of the generation.”
That’s what 44-year-old Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso said about Sauber’s rookie Gabriel Bortoleto after his impressive performance in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Talk about high praise.
Alonso is a two-time World Drivers’ Champion and is the oldest active driver on the Formula 1 grid. He also serves as Bortoleto’s manager.
“He commits few errors, always putting pressure,” said Alonso after Sunday’s race. “If he was English, or something, and finished sixth in a Sauber, he’d be in all the news tomorrow. What he does is exceptional.”
Borteleto did drive an exceptional race in Hungary and has been getting his well-deserved flowers in return.
The Brazilian rookie made the third and final qualifying session for the third time in his last four races, something he hadn’t done in his first 10 F1 Grand Prix. Bortoleto out-qualified the likes of World Champions Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton and was the highest-placed rookie of the five on the grid. Bortoleto recorded a 1:15.725 lap time in Q3, beating Verstappen by three tenths of a second and qualifying seventh, his best result yet.
His race was even more impressive. The 20-year-old passed Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who started one place ahead of Bortoleto, on the run down to the first corner on Lap 1. Bortoleto drove his Sauber for 40 laps on medium tires before switching to a fresh set of hard tires for the final 30 laps. His one-stop pit strategy worked to perfection and landed him a sixth-place finish, the best race result of his young career. Bortoleto was voted Driver of the Day by F1 fans, beating out his manager, Alonso, by zero point five percent.
"We did an amazing job [in Hungary], the team gave me an amazing car for today's race,” said Gabriel Bortoleto after the race. “We managed to put everything in place. The strategy was great. I don't see how we could finish this half of the season better.
"Also having Max [Verstappen] behind was not easy at the beginning of the race and keeping him behind me was super tough. Honestly [it] was a great race and I'm glad I was fighting with these guys at this moment of my career."
Bortoleto’s recent performances have had him fighting with some of the better drivers on track. The 20-year-old has finished in the Top 10 in three out of the last four races. He hadn’t finished in the points in his first 10 career Grand Prix.
The Brazilian was one of six rookies to start the F1 season. He joined Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Haas’ Oliver Bearman, Alpine’s Jack Doohan, Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar, and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson.
Not much was made of Bortoleto’s entry into the sport. The likes of Antonelli, Bearman, Doohan, and Lawson were receiving all the hype for various reasons, whether that be age, pedigree, or previous performances.
While Bortoleto’s name may not have been popular amongst racing fans, he sure does have the resume to back up why he was chosen for the second seat at Sauber. The Brazilian was the Formula 3 champion in 2023 and the Formula 2 champion in 2024. He was named the International Automobile Federation’s Rookie of the Year in 2024. The only problem was that he was joining a team with low expectations and was projected to finish at the bottom of the World Constructors’ standings. Sauber finished last out of 10 teams in the standings last season, tallying only four points.
Bortoleto struggled to start the season. The Sauber driver lost traction and spun out on a wet track in his first-ever F1 Grand Prix. He was just 10 laps away from finishing the Australian Grand Prix. To be fair to the Brazilian, he wasn’t the only rookie to crash out in the opening race of the season. All rookies but Antonelli, who finished fifth, and Bearman, who finished outside the points, did not finish the race due to crashes.
The 20-year-old finished 14th, 19th, and 18th in his next three races, but was dealing with a struggling car as he learned the ropes of F1. Two races later, in Miami, Bortoleto was forced to retire from the race due to a power unit failure.
Bortoleto remained positive and clearly demonstrated to the Sauber leadership that he belonged on the grid. There was a lot of outside noise surrounding the performances of F1’s six rookies. After just two Grand Prix, Lawson was demoted back to Racing Bulls, being replaced by Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull. Alpine replaced Doohan with Franco Colapinto six races into the season after the rookie failed to finish two races, with his highest finish being 13th place.
Despite the high expectations of the rookies on track and the changes that had been made, Bortoleto continued to adapt to the sport and started to improve. He finished 12th at the Spanish Grand Prix, his best result of the season at that point. The Brazilian would finish in the points in three out of the next five races, culminating in his sixth-place finish in Hungary on Sunday.
"I was a very rookie-rookie driver when I started the season but that's of course normal, Bortoleto said, and you progress a lot through your season when you start at that level and I feel like I've been learning so much.
"Not only in raw speed but I think mainly an understanding of my car and what I need from it, work with the engineers and everyone."
Bortoleto and his teammate Nico Hulkenberg have their Sauber cars performing at a level no one knew they could reach. Sauber find themselves seventh (51 points) in the World Constructors’ standings after a fantastic run of form from their drivers ahead of this month’s summer break. In the World Drivers’ standings, Bortoleto went from plum last with zero points to 17th with 14 points in just four races.
While he might not be the highest-scoring rookie on the grid, Bortoleto has shown his talent and bright future in a lesser-performing car.
"Gabriel has a fantastic work ethic, said Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley. “He has a capacity for taking on new information. He's proving every way to be the future star that we expected him to be.”
