Bortoleto and his obstacles to overcome as most promising 2025 rookie

At last Brazil returns to the grid. The promising rookie Gabriel Bortoleto will be the first fulltime Formula 1 driver from the South American nation since Felipe Massa retired from the sport in 2017. And if we consider that the Argentinian Franco Colapinto is sidelined as test driver at Alpine this year, the 20-year-old Bortoleto will be the only South American driver on the grid this year. I will dive into why Bortoleto is a highly praised driver by many people within the motorsport world, and whether he might have a chance of leaving his mark on the sport.

Gabriel Bortoleto during the Abu Dhabi post season test 2024, photo by Mark Sutton retrieved from Getty Images.

First, who is Bortoleto? that is the question I will answer for those of you who are not up to date on the fast moving world of Formula 1. Bortoleto has proven to be incredibly talented in the cockpit of an open-wheel race car in the past years. Let me define incredibly talented for you: Bortoleto competed in the European Regional Championship by Alpine in 2022, winning the race at Spa-Francorchamps and ending up sixth overall as he faced numerous reliability troubles. Combining this performance with other achievements in his junior career, the then 18-year-old Brazilian would be moving to FIA Formula 3 with the Trident team in 2023. He would go on to win the championship in his first year. That could be called immediate success for sure. Even though adapting to new cars often takes time for racing drivers, Formula 4 is quite different to Formula 3, and the difference to Formula 2 is an even bigger leap, vast adaptability was showcased by Bortoleto by winning the Formula 3 title in his first year on the grid. It would not stop there, as he managed to win the Formula 2 title in his rookie year in 2024 too. Even before securing the title last year, he was already announced for a multi-year deal with the Swiss Kick Sauber F1 team.

Bortoleto's first step towards his 2025 seat was signing with McLaren's Drivers Development Program after his Formula 3 title, meaning he would be an integral part of the British team in testing and developing their cars. As the first driver transfers were announced for 2025, Bortoleto was eventually announced in early November 2024 to pair up alongside Nico Hülkenberg at Sauber. Unfortunately for him, wrapping up the championship in his rookie season will be highly unlikely, even scoring points might not be on the cards for him as Sauber ended the 2024 season at the bottom of the standings with just 4 points. Considering Sauber will become Audi in 2026, a huge project to bring a fine German car brand back on the grid, it is also quite unlikely that the Sauber budget will be spent on developing their car over the course of the season.  Audi, however, is a huge project, with a massive budget from the Volkswagen Group. Now, don't get me wrong, I do not at all expect Audi to be wrapping up titles in 2026, but with new engine and car regulations for next year they definitely got the timing right. The last promising detail about Audi entering the sport, is that they will join forces with Porsche in developing the engine, Porsche already has been active in Formula E for years and that knowledge is useful considering Formula 1 engines will have three times the electrical power next year. So, I see Audi as a promising project and Bortoleto with a long-term deal might well become the star if the show.

Lastly, Bortoleto is of course highly anticipated, praised and has an immense support from drivers and fans around the world, but he must still prove his worth in Formula 1. 2-time world champion Alonso already outed his high expectations at the end of last year as he mentioned “I know there are a lot of talks about the young generation – a lot of rookies also next year, very talented all of them, but the best is Gabriel. He showed it on track with the same cars”, and has signed him to his A14 driver's management program in 2022. How can Bortoleto prove he lives up to the expectations though? To me, the first step to prove his pace is matching or beating teammate Nico Hülkenberg on a regular basis. The German driver is heading into his 15th fulltime season, being in the sport for so long requires pace and consistency, for Bortoleto this could be a great learning opportunity to begin his Formula 1 career.

Fernando Alonso and Gabriel Bortoleto in Bahrain 2023, photo by Joe Portlock retrieved from GettyImages.

Unlike Alonso, I will not call Bortoleto the best rookie in Formula 1 this year, not yet at least. He is surely the most promising one, but he still must prove his worth in order to live up to the expectations. These expectations add some extra pressure to the youngster, but you got to work around that being a Formula 1 driver anyway as pressure is part of the job. Sauber might be the worst team, but Audi has a promising lineup from 2026 onward with the experienced Hülkenberg and the talented Bortoleto who could well grow into a race winner with the Audi project.