Rookie of ‘this generation’? Alonso calls out bias
Fernando Alonso has a bold idea that could change wet weather racing.
Fernando Alonso believes were it not for bias, Gabriel Bortoleto would not only be F1 2025’s best rookie, but the best “of this generation.”
Alas, he reckons the Sauber driver’s sixth at the Hungarian Grand Prix did not receive the recognition it deserved.
Fernando Alonso names his ‘rookie of this generation’
Bortoleto arrived on the F1 grid for the F1 2025 season the minimal F1 preparation.
Although he won the Formula 2 title as a McLaren-backed driver, his TPC time while still under the McLaren umbrella was limited, while Kimi Antonelli covered over 9,000km in an old Mercedes F1 car.
It meant that when Sauber announced Bortoleto in early November, the Brazilian didn’t even have a single FP1 practice session to his name.
Arriving on the grid as arguably one of the least prepared rookies for F1, he recorded a run of 10 races outside of the points before breaking his duck at the Austrian Grand Prix with a 10th place result.
Since then, Bortoleto has marched on to three top ten results in four races, culminating in a career-best sixth at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
But while Sauber and his manager Alonso celebrated a day in which Bortoleto not only beat reigning World Champion Max Verstappen and all the drivers from the Red Bull and Racing Bulls stables, including Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, his achievements were largely overshadowed by Verstappen and Hamilton’s misery. Even by Kimi Antonelli’s return to the points in 10th for Mercedes.
F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers
👉 The results of the F1 2025 championship
👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings
Alonso reckons were it not for bias, his driver would’ve been headline news.
“He commits few errors, always putting pressure,” said Alonso, speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com. “He’s the best rookie of this generation.
“If he was English, or something, and finished sixth in a Sauber, he’d be in all the news.
“What he does is exceptional.”
Bortoleto has achieved three points finishes in the past four grands prix, boosting Stake’s chances of catching Williams for fifth in the constructors’ standings.
The 20-year-old reckons his rookie campaign on the grid has been going according to plan, even in the 10 races he didn’t score. After all, it’s progress.
“It’s my rookie season,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, “it’s normal that you progress. At least for me, I’ve always been like this.
“If you check my junior series, I’ve been a guy who has always had these types of steps in my career.
“But it’s also because I like to work, I like to study, I like to understand what I’ve been doing wrong and how to do a better job.”
Bortoleto is, on F1 2025 stats, third on the rookies list behind Kimi Antonelli on 64 points and Isack Hadjar on 22.
Read next: Aron? Bottas? Colapinto’s F1 future clarified with Alpine mission set
