Another Formula 1 driver lineup for 2025 has been confirmed, with Sauber/Audi announcing in a statement that Gabriel Bortoleto will drive with the team for 2025 and 2026.
Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the 20-year-old sensation has signed a long-term deal to keep him in the sport at least for the new era of F1 regulations coming in 2026.
The current Sauber-owned team will become Audi in 2026, and have been looking for the right driver to partner veteran Nico Hulkenberg as the Hinwil-based outfit head into their new era.
Having scored zero points so far this season and sitting bottom of the constructors' championship, Sauber decided to axe both current drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in favour of the young Brazilian Bortoleto.
But who is the current F2 championship leader? And why do the team think he is the best option to partner an in-form Hulkenberg from next season onwards.
Early life and career
Bortoleto was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on October 14 2004, and began his karting career at the age of just eight.
The Brazilian stayed in karting up until 2019, when he was 15, and instead took up single-seater racing in the Italian F4 championship.
Bortoleto raced in that particular series in 2020 with Prema Racing, finishing fifth overall in the standings and claiming his first single-seater race victory in the process.
He then graduated up to the Formula Regional European Championship, competing in that series in 2021 and 2022, claiming two wins and six podiums in that time.
In 2023, McLaren signed Bortoleto as a member of their driver development programme, with the team looking towards the future despite their current youthful driver lineup of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Bortoleto competed in F3 with the Trident team in the 2023 season, claiming the championship in that series, beating current Williams driver Franco Colapinto in the process.
Having clearly excelled in that series, the step up to F2 for the Brazilian in 2024 also came with real ease, with Bortoleto currently leading the championship with just two rounds to go, in an intense rivalry with Red Bull junior driver Isack Hadjar.
After a spluttering start, Bortoleto claimed his first podium in Imola with the Invicta Racing team, before claiming his first series victory at the Red Bull Ring.
Bortoleto's recently confirmed move to Sauber/Audi has led to McLaren having to let go of the Brazilian driver from their driver development programme, wishing him luck in a post on social media.
Is Alonso Bortoleto's manager?
Yes, two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso is the manager of Bortoleto, through his management agency A14 Management.
At the Belgian Grand Prix, Alonso was reportedly spotted in the Sauber motorhome, with Spanish media suggesting that the 43-year-old was trying to negotiate a deal for the Brazilian driver to join Sauber for 2025.
Fernando Alonso is Gabriel Bortoleto's manager
Who was the last Brazilian driver on the F1 grid?
Bortoleto will join the grid from 2025, making him the first full-time Brazilian driver on the grid since Felipe Massa in 2017.
Massa raced in the sport between 2002-2017, claiming 11 grand prix victories and 41 podiums. The Brazilian narrowly missed out on the world championship in 2008 by just one point to Lewis Hamilton, almost joining Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Emerson Fittipaldi as Brazilian world champions.
The last Brazilian to feature in an F1 race was Fittipaldi's nephew Pietro Fittipaldi, who took part in two races in the 2020 season for the Haas team in place of Romain Grosjean.
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