After winning the Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships in back to back seasons, Gabriel Bortoleto deservedly got the call to move up to F1 for 2025, partnering Nico Hulkenberg in an all-new line-up for Kick Sauber.
Bortoleto will be the first Brazilian in a race seat in Formula 1 since Pietro Fittipaldi deputized the injured Romain Grosjean for Haas in 2020, and the first on a full-time basis since Felipe Massa’s retirement from Williams after the 2017 season.
He arrives on the grid looking to continue a legacy of Brazilian greatness that includes champions Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, and Emerson Fittipaldi.
Triumph in Formula 2
Bortoleto carries great momentum into the 2025 season. On his way to that rookie championship in Formula 2 in 2024, he won two races: the feature at Red Bull Ring, and the feature at Monza, in which he came from a dead-last 22nd starting position to take the win, the first time ever at a Formula 2 race.
Bortoleto finished in the points in 22 of 28 rounds, rallying from fourth in points after the Silverstone round and scoring three straight podiums to clinch the title at Abu Dhabi.
Consistency is key
That consistency of results has been evident throughout his rise through the ranks, with Bortoleto also scoring in 15 of 18 races, with two wins, to take the Formula 3 title in his first try the previous season. He has been both consistently fast and consistently safe, with just ten retirements across five seasons of lower-formula racing, and in Formula 1, where every dollar spent on repairs is a dollar not spent on continued development, this is important.
A transition year
This is perhaps no more important than at a team that is not merely developing for this season, but in fact in a major transition for the future. This will be the last season for Bortoleto’s team as Sauber, with both he and Hulkenberg signed to carry on as the team becomes the Audi factory team in time for the new regulations in 2026.
There is no expectation that Bortoleto will continue his streak of rookie championships, but rather, the goal this season will be to maximise team chemistry as they develop what Audi hope will be a championship contender in the coming years–and hopefully with Bortoleto, skills further developed, spearheading that challenge.
Bortoleto must bring the results in 2025 F1 campaign
For the upcoming 2025 F1 season, that means that Gabriel Bortoleto simply needs to keep doing what he’s been doing: racing hard but largely cleanly, and bringing the results to him.
Given that he will be driving for a team that scored just once–Zhou Guanyu’s 8th place at Qatar–in 2024, those results may well be few and far between no matter what he can bring to the car. But there will be 24 opportunities for the Brazilian rookie to show his pace, and, even if scraping the points is the best his pace can muster, it’ll be important for him to take those chances.
