Rubens Barrichello, Interlagos, 2023

Bortoleto faces “a lot of pressure” as Brazil’s next F1 driver – Barrichello

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In the round-up: Formula 1 race winner Rubens Barrichello says his country’s latest driver faces high expectations.

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In brief

Barrichello says he rates Bortoleto

Gabriel Bortoleto will make his F1 debut with Sauber next year. Barrichello says expectations will be high in a country which produced multiple champions including Ayrton Senna, Emerson Fittipaldi and Nelson Piquet.

“I do rate him for sure,” Barrichello told the official F1 channel. “Right now it’s not a question of driving ability, it’s to see how well he’s prepared to deliver.

“Right now is everything lovely. People look at you differently, the paddock is watching you and the behaviour right now is just fun.

“He is a very good driver. We just have to see how he develops on mind management, on how he manages things because it’s going to be a lot of pressure. He’s the next one. For a very long time we didn’t have [a driver], so there’s a lot of expectation from the public, so we have to see.”

Red Bull’s McLaughlin gets F4 seat

Red Bull junior driver Fionn McLaughlin will compete in the British Formula Four championship for Hitech next year. The 17-year-old joined the F1 team’s academy earlier this year after being selected from a group of 11 candidates.

“Fionn is an exciting young talent and we’re pleased to welcome him to Hitech for the 2025 British F4 season,” said Hitech’s British F4 team manager Dominic Stott. “The transition from karting is always a real test but Fionn has shown a lot of potential and we’re looking forward to seeing him make the step up to the start of a promising single-seater career.”

No change in Toyota’s 2025 WEC line-up

Toyota will keep the same line-ups in its two GR010s next year. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries will drive number seven and Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa will share the number eight car.

Typhoon threatens Macau Grand Prix

The first day of running at the Macau Grand Prix is likely to be disrupted by a major storm system heading to the area. Tropical cyclone Toraji is expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain to the area.

The Guia circuit is due to hold the first of four days of running today, including the opening qualifying session for the Formula Regional World Cup.

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Comment of the day

Romain Grosjean remarked he had “probably one of my best seasons” in 2024, though some feel he set the bar low:

Lowest number of inter team accidents ever in one season, lowest number of taking team mates out in a season and lowest number of single vehicle crashes while running in good positions equals one of Grosjean’s finest years in motorsport. Now he just needs to work on finishing positions.
Mooa42

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Sridhar!

On this day in motorsport

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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5 comments on “Bortoleto faces “a lot of pressure” as Brazil’s next F1 driver – Barrichello”

  1. I dunno, he looks a lot faster than Colapinto. Arguably the fastest driver in F2 atm.

  2. Barry Chello has not aged at all in the decades since he was a regular act on the grid. What’s he taking?

    1. that is Matt Damon, not Barrichello

      1. No, it states it’s barrichello if you open the image, and unless he has a clone I’d have said it looked too similar anyway.

  3. BLS (@brightlampshade)
    15th November 2024, 8:45

    He’s being dropped into a slow team paired against a steady if unspectacular driver. In some ways it’s a relatively low expectation situation, but it may be hard to make yourself stand out as well, low risk low reward!

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