Revealed: How Bernie Ecclestone is still influencing the F1 driver market

Bernie Ecclestone has revealed his role in helping Gabriel Bortoleto secure a seat on the F1 2025 grid with Audi F1.

Bortoleto will be joining the grid full time next season as a Sauber driver, partnering Nico Hulkenberg before the Hinwil-based team transitions to Audi F1, and former Formula 1 CEO Ecclestone has revealed that he and his wife Fabiana “opened a few doors” for the move to happen.

Bernie Ecclestone ‘opened a few doors’ for Gabriel Bortoleto move

Additional reporting by Michelle Foster

Bortoleto emerged as a contender for an Audi F1 seat as his performances in Formula 2 this season put him to the top of the championship, which he leads by 4.5 points from Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar heading into the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

He beat other candidates such as Sauber junior Théo Pourchaire, as well as both current race drivers in Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu to a race drive next season, with a multi-year deal announced earlier this week.

Speaking to Swiss-German publication Blick, Ecclestone revealed that his wife received a message from Bortoleto’s family after his place on the F1 2025 grid was confirmed.

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“Bortoleto’s father thanked us for our help in transferring his son Gabriel to Audi-Sauber,” the former F1 boss revealed. “We opened a few doors there.

“The important thing now is for Bortoleto to find a flat near the factory immediately.”

Bortoleto himself has been released from McLaren’s junior programme to be able to take up this opportunity with Audi F1 and has emerged as a contender for a Formula 1 drive through the season as his Formula 2 performances raised eyebrows.

Speaking after his deal with Sauber was announced, the Brazilian told media including PlanetF1.com: “Obviously as a young driver, you always want to be as soon as possible in Formula 1.

“But I fully trusted with my team that we would get a good opportunity, and when we spoke to Mattia [Binotto, Audi F1 chief] for the first time, we had this conversation, and we were planning what to do for the future, not only for next year – and I think I was quite easy with it.

“I was not too stressed, and it’s not going to change anything in my life right now, because I already knew that things should happen in the future.

“I’m just going to keep driving the same and doing my job in Formula 2 and targeting for this championship that we’re leading right now. But obviously it’s very nice to be announced and stop all these speculations here and there, and to just focus in F2.”

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