Sauber F1 driver Gabriel Bortoleto hits back at the comments from Helmut Marko about him lacking ‘pure speed‘ ahead of the Australian GP on Sunday.
Marko doesn’t think Bortoleto has ‘pure speed’
Even though Bortoleto won the F2 and F3 championship in back-to-back rookie seasons, the 81-year-old described the F1 newcomer as having no ‘pure speed’, and sees his consistency on track as a disadvantage.
“I would classify him [Bortoleto] as a ‘B’ driver,” he said.
“He’s a very intelligent driver, he won the Formula 3 championship, but with only one win and he usually stays out of trouble.
“In Formula 2 he only managed two victories. He is a driver who brings the car home safely, has a good command of strategy and tyre management, but I don’t see that pure speed in him.”
Bortoleto wants to ‘prove him wrong’
Being the new prospect of Brazil in Formula 1, and the first full-time Brazilian driver since Felipe Massa retired in 2017, Bortoleto is not backing down from Marko’s remarks.
Responding to Marko in his print media session, the Brazilian F1 driver said he’s unfazed by the remarks. He then added how the Austrian has made misjudgments about drivers from the Red Bull Academy in the past.
“I don’t care,” he said. “I mean, I’ve seen that and I love challenges and I think hearing that from Helmut, he’s a guy that has put a lot of talent in Formula 1 and has put a lot of wrong talents already in F1, so you can see he got it right and wrong.”
The F1 inductee is motivated that he is able prove Marko wrong with his on-track results.
“Hopefully I will prove him wrong with time. But nothing I can say now on media that will change his mind. Just my results on track, and I’m sure I’m going to prove him wrong at some point. Hopefully he will admit this when I prove him wrong.
“But for now, I’m just focusing on doing my job and improving and doing the best I can.
Since narrowly winning against out fellow F1 rookie and Red Bull Academy driver Isack Hadjar in F2 last season, he says that winning against the Red Bull academy drivers is a feat to be proud of.
“I’m proud of what I did in junior series, and I won in F2 and F3 against the Red Bull drivers he has, so all good for me.”
