Gabriel Bortoleto rookie season assessed as key lessons revealed

Jonathan Wheatley believes Gabriel Bortoleto is “doing everything right” as he builds his F1 career, having put in an impressive rookie season with Sauber.

Bortoleto was one of the most impressive rookies in F1 2025 and is set to stay with Sauber as it morphs into the Audi factory team for the new regulation cycle.

Gabriel Bortoleto on lessons learned in F1 2025

Bortoleto stepped up to F1 with Sauber this year, having won the Formula 2 title in 2024.

The first half of the season proved something of a slog as the Sauber proved largely uncompetitive, although Bortoleto did stack up favourably against his experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg, although, unsurprisingly, it was the German driver who scored the lion’s share of the team’s 70 points tally as well as the biggest results of the year.

But, with 19 points on the board, Bortoleto did underline his potential with some stand-out drives, including a sixth-place finish in Hungary that proved his zenith of a solid rookie season.

Heading into his second season with a greater level of experience, Bortoleto explained where he feels he’s learned the most during the last 12 months.

“On the racing side, it’s the technical side of things,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, in Abu Dhabi.

“The amount of information I got through the year and the learning I received from the engineers and studying and doing all of these things together, it was great.

“I feel like, just last year in the postseason [test] last year, I basically didn’t know anything.

“I didn’t have a clue what I wanted from the car, what I needed from the car. I was actually talking to my engineer, and he was like, ‘Do you remember anything from the test last year, or do you remember how the car felt?’

“I said, ‘Man, don’t ask me that now! It was so long ago and and I had no understanding, so I don’t want to give you wrong feedback on things!’

“What I like about a car, let’s say, was not what I was running, for example, so that’s why he was asking me that.”

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Where Bortoleto also impressed was in qualifying, with the duo finishing level on 12-12 for the Grands Prix, and an even split of 3-3 in Sprint Qualifying. Given Hulkenberg’s experience of over a decade, this achievement was one Bortoleto was particularly proud of.

“There was a period of the year when I was ahead of him every quali,” he said.

“And then there was a period of the year when he started out-qualifying me as well.

“I think we have been extracting a lot of the car. You see how tight it is.

“It’s all about the confidence you have in the car and it has been a great season, in that sense, for me, because to be matching a guy like him that is known as one of the best qualifiers in the grid, it’s quite an impressive thing from my point of view, and I’m very glad, because I’ve been able to learn a lot from him as well.”

Certainly, Bortoleto’s rookie season impressed his Sauber team boss, Jonathan Wheatley, who said he didn’t have much by way of advice to offer the young Brazilian.

“Do you know what? He’s doing everything right, and he’s on schedule; he’s building a team around him,” he said, assessing Bortoleto’s year.

“He’s building his engineering team around him. He’s understanding the car. He’s tempering his frustration.

“He’s a young guy. You hear his radio messages, and he understands that the team’s on a journey.

“I don’t really have any advice for him that I haven’t already said to him in person, but I just think, if we look at his rookie season, it’s a pretty outstanding season.”

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Expectations of the new Audi F1 team are high, with the German manufacturer arriving in F1 after a full takeover of the Sauber squad, but Bortoleto said he doesn’t expect to be the full product just yet, and said he is looking forward to stepping up in responsibility for the first season of the new project.

“It was obviously a rookie season,” he said.

“There are some things that you can do that you can get away with, but I believe I will have a lot of learning to do next year.

“It’s still gonna be only my second year in Formula 1. It’s the beginning of a career. You know, there are people here for more than 15, 20 years, so there is still a big gap, and it keeps increasing.

“It keeps the same, because they are still racing, but I wouldn’t say pressure. With the brand, Audi, coming up and everything, there will definitely be more responsibilities to take and to do.

“It’s the start of a project, and a new generation of cars and everything. So for sure, we’re gonna have the pressure of developing a good car, power unit and everything to be fighting for a world title one day.”

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