Gabriel Bortoleto will become Brazil’s first Formula 1 driver since Felipe Massa when he joins the grid in 2025.
The McLaren development driver was leading the Formula 2 championship when Sauber selected him to join their team the following year. McLaren cleared the way for him to join Nico Hulkenberg at the team which will become Audi in 2026.Bortoleto ensured he stood out by following up a comfortable run to the 2023 Formula 3 title with a strong debut in F2 the following year.
Bortoleto’s route to F1
2023 – Formula 3
Bortoleto enjoyed a rapid rise through the single-seater ranks out of karting. His first season in car racing was in the Italian Formula 4 championship in 2020, where he took a single race win on his way to fifth in the standings, racing against the likes of Gabriele Mini – who became champion – Jak Crawford and future F1 driver Oliver Bearman
From there Bortoleto moved up to Formula Regional level in 2021, racing in the European series over the next two years, taking two victories in his second campaign in 2022. His 2022 campaign brought him to the attention of none other than Fernando Alonso whose A14 management company signed him.
Although Bortoleto was now chiefly based in Europe, he made a one-off appearance in the Brazilian Stock Car series. He placed sixth in the season opener at Interlagos, sharing a Chevrolet V8 with Gaetano Di Mauro, up against former F1 drivers including Rubens Barrichello.
For 2023, Bortoleto made his biggest step forward yet into the competitive Formula 3 series. Racing with Trident, the 18-year-old made an instant impression by securing a front row grid position in the opening qualifying session of the season in Bahrain, then winning Sunday’s feature race. He followed that up by taking pole position and converting it into feature race victory in the next round in Melbourne to establish himself as the clear early championship favourite.
While Bortoleto would never win again that season, he showed remarkable consistency. Over the remaining 14 races, he only failed to finish out of the top ten twice and recorded top six finishes in ten of those races, including four second places.
Bortoleto’s regular points-gathering meant he arrived at Monza for the final round of the championship needing just two points to seal the championship. When closest rival Paul Aron failed to secure pole position in qualifying and the bonus points that came with it, Bortoleto was confirmed as champion before the races had even begun
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2024 – Formula 2
Weeks after winning the F3 title, Bortoleto was signed by McLaren to their junior driver development programme. For his progression from F3 to F2, Bortoleto moved from Trident to Invicta.
Again, he made a strong first impression by securing pole for his first feature race in Bahrain. He could not convert that into victory this time, however, but still took two top six finishes from the weekend.
Three consecutive failures to finish across Jeddah and Melbourne left Bortoleto down in 12th after the first three rounds, but that consistency he showed in Formula 3 began to kick in again as he scored points in the next nine rounds, including his first win in the Red Bull Ring feature race to go with two other podium finishes.
Bortoleto was now fourth in the championship but still more than 40 points off leader Isack Hadjar. But a poor run of results for Hadjar was contrasted by a great stretch for Bortoleto, which included two remarkable races in Monza. First he drove from the back of the grid to score a point in the sprint race, then a well-timed Safety Car allowed him to leap from 22nd on the grid to win a memorable feature race.
Two top five finishes in Baku and two failures to score for Hadjar meant that Bortoleto left Azerbaijan with a four-and-a-half point lead over the Red Bull junior in the championship with four races remaining. But soon afterwards came confirmation that Bortoleto had achieved the first objective of every F2 driver – securing an F1 seat.
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Bortoleto’s F1 career
2025 – Sauber
After claiming the lead of the F2 championship in September, Bortoleto’s had become an unexpected contender for one of the final seats on the F1 grid at Sauber. The team, which was to become Audi’s factory team in 2026, came under new management from former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, who thought Bortoleto’s youth and raw talent would make him a superb candidate to join the experienced Hulkenberg.
Just days after the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix, Sauber announced Bortoleto as their second driver for 2025 on a multi-year deal, meaning he would join Hulkenberg to complete Audi’s first ever F1 driver line up.
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Bortoleto’s career in pictures
