Gabriel Bortoleto is watching Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar reach Formula 1 podiums while his own journey with Audi follows a very different path, but the Brazilian insists he is in no hurry. Having raced against both drivers throughout much of his junior career, Bortoleto knows what he is capable of and believes the long-term Audi project can eventually give him the opportunity to fight for victories and world championships.
For now, Antonelli and Hadjar are closer to winning than Bortoleto, but the 22-year-old sees no reason to judge their careers after only a short time in Formula 1. His focus is instead on helping Audi develop into a front-running team and ensuring that he is ready when the machinery is capable of winning.
Gabriel Bortoleto refuses to compare his path with Antonelli and Hadjar
Gabriel Bortoleto has spent much of his career racing against Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar. He knows both well, has competed directly with them and points to his own performances against the pair in the junior categories as evidence of his ability.
Today, however, their Formula 1 careers are at different stages. Antonelli and Hadjar have already experienced the podium, while Bortoleto is contributing to the growth of a project that has longer-term ambitions.
“I see Hadjar, but Kimi as well. They are the two from my generation who are getting podiums,” Gabriel Bortoleto told Motorsport.com. “I have raced with them my entire life. The truth is that in the junior categories I also did well compared with them and I know my abilities. But I have to be patient. Everyone has their own path. Let’s see where we all end up in 20 years.”
That patience has become central to Bortoleto’s approach. At 22, he has already achieved the childhood dream of reaching Formula 1, but the move into the championship also forced him to adjust after spending years competing for victories and titles.
“I’m very happy to be in Formula 1, it’s the first step of a dream I’ve always had. At the same time, I’m honest, it’s also difficult when you come from the junior categories where you’ve won and then arrive in Formula 1 knowing you can’t fight for the top positions. It’s been almost two years now. Today the target is to score points and it isn’t easy.”
Bortoleto believes Audi will eventually give him a winning car
The key for Bortoleto is what he believes lies ahead. He does not regard Audi as an intermediate stop while waiting for an opportunity with an established front-running team. Instead, his ambition is to still be part of the project when Audi itself becomes one of Formula 1’s leading teams.
“What motivates me and pushes me to keep going is the project I’m part of. I’m not in a team whose ambition is to remain where we are today. I’m in a team that is improving every year and has a clear long-term project ahead of it. I hope that one day I’ll look back and see that the journey we made was what allowed us to reach the top.”
Asked about being one of the central figures in Audi’s future, Bortoleto said he feels pride rather than pressure.
“Pride, yes. Pressure, no. There will be difficult moments, there will be times when you don’t win and I have to keep working on my mind, on myself and developing as a driver. Because the day Audi gives me the opportunity to win, with a winning car and a winning engine — and it will happen, I don’t think it will take that long — I will have to be ready to show that I’m capable.”
The confidence behind “it will happen” is significant. Bortoleto appears to have accepted that his career requires something young drivers often find difficult to give: time.
“Right now Hadjar and Kimi are definitely closer to the ultimate goal, which is winning a World Championship, but everything could change within a year. You never know. I have to keep doing my best.”
Mattia Binotto has become far more than a team boss
One person Bortoleto regularly discusses that situation with is Mattia Binotto. The head of Audi’s Formula 1 project experienced Ferrari’s successful years from inside the organisation, lived through very different competitive cycles and is now helping build a new project from fresh foundations.
“I talk to Mattia a lot. I often ask him for help with this situation because I know he has a lot of experience and understands what I’m going through now. He has already been in a winning team and now he’s in a team that wants to win. He helps me a lot.”
The relationship, however, has developed beyond the conventional connection between a driver and senior management.
“He’s a mentor, he’s a friend, he’s a boss, but he’s also a very different figure from what I imagined. Because in the end, when you have a boss, normally the relationship is a little formal. He’s different. I don’t see him only as a boss, but also as someone I can go to for advice about my personal life. That aspect is really nice.”
Max Verstappen gives Bortoleto insight into building a winning team
Bortoleto also has another particularly valuable adviser: Max Verstappen.
The two are friends and share an interest in sim racing. Their conversations are not necessarily focused on individual corners or qualifying techniques. Bortoleto is particularly interested in understanding how a team develops into a championship-winning organisation.
“I talk to Max a lot. Obviously the details stay between him and me, but many times we talk about how I feel, how I’m developing, what I want from Audi and how we are growing as a team. I ask him questions about the situation he experienced at Red Bull before winning the World Championship: what things were like, how the team worked.”
Sometimes those conversations happen in the most informal circumstances possible.
“They’re things that come into my head maybe while we’re playing, and then I ask him.”
Mattia Binotto and Max Verstappen offer Bortoleto two different perspectives on the same challenge. Binotto understands what it takes to construct an organisation capable of winning, while Verstappen personally experienced the waiting period before his first world title. Bortoleto listens to both because his challenge today is not simply to drive quickly, but to prepare himself for the moment when he has the tools required to win.
The driver who never wanted a Plan B
The patience Bortoleto shows today is particularly striking when compared with his mentality in the junior categories. At that stage, he did not want to hear about alternatives to Formula 1.
“Never,” Gabriel Bortoleto replied when asked whether he had ever had a Plan B. “A lot of people told me it was wrong to think like that, and maybe it was, because there are many great categories in motorsport that give you the opportunity to become a professional and race at a high level. But I wanted to reach Formula 1 because it was the category I dreamed about as a child.”
As the years passed, people around him tried to remind him how difficult that objective was. Seats were limited, turnover was low and many talented drivers never reached Formula 1.
“They would tell me: ‘Even if you win Formula 3 and even if you’re winning Formula 2, if it doesn’t happen, what will you do?’ And I would reply: ‘That doesn’t enter my head. Don’t even tell me that.’ I’d get angry and walk away.”
Monza 2024 became one of Bortoleto’s defining junior moments
Bortoleto ultimately answered those doubts on track. He won Formula 3 as a rookie before progressing to Formula 2 the following year, and one of the moments he remembers most vividly came at Monza in 2024.
During qualifying, he went into the gravel at the first Lesmo while fighting for the championship. Isack Hadjar was set to start near the front, while Bortoleto faced starting from the back of the grid.
“I told myself: I’m starting last, he’s starting third, even if I drive the race of my life, where can I finish? We all have equal cars, it isn’t as though one is much stronger than another. Even the engineers were saying it wouldn’t be easy to overtake.”
Bortoleto went on to win.
“With everything that happened in the race, winning was an incredible emotion for me. Something really special.”
It was also an important message to the Formula 1 paddock. Bortoleto still did not have an F1 contract at that stage and knew every major performance could influence his future.
“I had to show that I deserved an opportunity.”
The phone call that rewarded 20 years of sacrifice
When the Formula 1 opportunity eventually arrived, Bortoleto initially did not fully understand what was happening. Discussions with Audi had been taking place for some time, but he was unsure whether they concerned 2025 or 2026. Then his manager called him with the date of the announcement.
“I said to him: ‘What announcement? For 2026?’ And he said: ‘No, for 2025!’ I replied: ‘What are you talking about, for 2025?’ And he said: ‘You will race in 2025 as a full-time driver.’”
Bortoleto was at his home in Milan with his girlfriend. He immediately called his family in Brazil.
“I made a video call with my dad, my mum and my brother and said: ‘I have to tell you something, stop everything!’ I remember very well that my mum was crying, my brother was incredibly excited and my father didn’t know what to say.”
Behind that seat were years of karting, travelling and family sacrifices that Bortoleto experienced from a very different perspective to his parents.
“It’s impossible to explain what it means, but it’s the achievement of work carried out for 20 years. I know how many days my father wasn’t at home, how many races he couldn’t come and watch when I was little because he had to work.”
The Bortoleto family did not originally come from motorsport. His father worked in web and telecommunications before later becoming involved in Brazilian racing, where he now manages the Stock Car series.
“There were a lot of sacrifices from them, including living far away from me in order to keep working. And that day, when we had that video call, I think what went through my mind was: it’s a huge achievement for me, but for my dad and my mum it is even bigger. All the sacrifices were worth it.”
Bortoleto says money comes after winning
That background may also help explain Bortoleto’s attitude towards money, which differs from some of the stereotypes surrounding Formula 1. Asked whether drivers also compete over salaries, the Brazilian dismissed the idea.
“I don’t care how much the others earn. I care about having a winning car and a good project ahead of me. Then money is a consequence. If you’re a great champion, you’ll never be short of money. If you win races, the last thing you need to worry about is how much money is coming in.”
He then added: “If anything, the problem is where to spend it or who to help. If you make all that money and don’t help the people around you, you don’t deserve it.”
A mind that never completely switches off from racing
Bortoleto admits he shares a problem common to many racing drivers: he finds it difficult to stop thinking about motorsport. Video games provide his way of switching off, even when what appears on the screen still has four wheels.
“My mind is always on racing. I need something that allows me to disconnect from what I do for the rest of the day. Sometimes the subject is still motorsport, but experienced in a different way. There I’m laughing, I’m having fun, it isn’t work. I don’t have to search for perfection.”
For Bortoleto, genuine perfection does not exist when a human being is driving.
“The perfect lap, no, I don’t think it exists, because perfection would mean being able to say: ‘I had nothing more.’ But a lap very close to perfection can exist. Perfection isn’t human. Perfection, for me, is computer simulations.”
That philosophy helps explain his wider approach. Rather than believing he has already arrived, Bortoleto remains focused on constant development.
“I study, I try to understand. In the end, in 20 or 30 years, when I look back at my career, I don’t want to think that I didn’t do everything I could have done.”
Bortoleto’s ultimate target is clear: win titles with Audi
The reference to 20 years appears repeatedly in Bortoleto’s outlook: first when discussing where he, Antonelli and Hadjar might eventually end up, and again when considering how he will judge his own career.
For now, he accepts being in a Formula 1 environment where other drivers from his generation are standing on podiums while he helps build a project that is not yet ready to win. He does not appear to regard that as a sacrifice, but rather as an investment in what Audi could become.
Asked where Gabriel Bortoleto expects to be in five years, his answer was immediate.
“Hopefully winning world championships, obviously with Audi.”
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