Gabriel Bortoleto came to his rookie Formula 2 season as the 2023 F3 champion, and high expectations followed, however, with consistency as the focus of his 2024 F2 campaign, he stormed to take back-to-back titles.
With Invicta Virtuosi, he raced alongside Kush Maini and impressed the team throughout the season. His ability to stay calm and make his way to the front of the field, no matter the weekend was to be admired up and down the grid. It put him firmly in the title fight and pushed him ahead in the season’s final weekend.
A difficult start
Despite the first round in Bahrain getting off to a strong start for the Brazillian driver with points in both races, his luck immediately turned. He had shown he had the speed to be in the points, but over Jeddah and Melbourne, they evaded him.
In Jeddah, Bortoleto climbed from 15th to 10th but narrowly missed out on points due to it being a sprint race. But his luck got worse, and suffering from a driveshaft issue in the feature race failed to finish.
Melbourne was another good qualifying for Bortoleto, getting his Invicta in ninth, which put him in second for the sprint race. However, he was taken out of the race after colliding with Isack Hajdar at the start. His bad luck continued, in the feature race, he suffered a hydraulics issue, which left him with a second retirement of the weekend.
A turn around
Melbourne marked the end of Bortoleto’s bad luck and the beginning of an impressive championship recovery.
He took podiums in both Imola’s feature race and Monaco’s sprint race. These good results manoeuvred the Brazillian back into the top five in the driver’s championship.
In the next 18 races, Bortoleto left only two with no points. He wasn’t the most dominant driver on the grid with two wins and six podiums in the final 18 races. But his biggest strength was the consistency he found.
When he wasn’t on the podium, he was always towards the top end of the points. After his maiden victory in Monza, he was firmly in championship contention just behind Isack Hadjar.
His final stint of the season is what pushed him ahead of Hadjar, with three podiums in a row. In the Abu Dhabi feature, Isack Hajdar stalled off the line and all Bortoleto needed to do was finish the race and the title was his.
When he crossed the line he joined an elite group of back-to-back F2 and F3 winners. Much like his predecessors George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc, he received a Formula 1 contract for his efforts.
It is clear that Bortoleto deserves to be fighting at the front no matter the category. There is no doubt that he will be one to watch as he makes the step up to F1 with Sauber.
