Autosport has reported:

Gabriel Bortoleto says he is prepared to be patient while Audi builds towards challenging at the front of Formula 1, even as fellow members of his junior racing generation Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar have already celebrated their first podiums. The 22-year-old Brazilian raced against and beat both drivers in junior categories, but their careers have taken different routes so far. Bortoleto is now helping Audi develop a team he believes can eventually give him a chance to win.

“They're the two drivers from my generation who are getting podiums,” Bortoleto told Autosport. “I've raced against them all my life. The truth is that I did well against them in the junior categories, and I know what I'm capable of. But I have to be patient. Everyone has their own path. Let's see where we all end up in 20 years.”

Bortoleto has reached the childhood goal of becoming a Formula 1 driver, but his new circumstances have changed how he measures progress. In the junior categories he fought for wins and championships. In Formula 1, he said, his current task is to score points, a challenge after coming from a record of winning.

“I'm very happy to be in Formula 1,” he said. “It's the first step towards a dream I've always had. At the same time, to be honest, it's also difficult when you come from the junior categories, where you've been winning, and then arrive in Formula 1 knowing you can't fight at the front. It's been almost two years now. Today, the goal is to score points, and that's not easy.”

His motivation comes from the long-term project at Audi, which he described as a team improving each year with an ambition to move beyond its present position. Bortoleto, the 2023 Formula 3 and 2024 Formula 2 champion, said he wants to be part of the effort that turns the team into a winner rather than use his current seat as a route to another outfit or a way to attract a front-running team’s attention.

“What motivates me and keeps me going is the project I'm part of,” he said. “I'm not in a team whose ambition is to stay where we are today. I'm in a team that's improving every year and has a clear long-term plan. I hope that one day I'll look back and see that everything we've been through helped us reach the top.”

Bortoleto knows his age and potential mean he is expected to have an important role in Audi’s future. He said that prospect gives him pride, rather than pressure, while recognising that building a competitive team will include periods without victories. He is working on his mindset and development so he will be ready if Audi provides a winning car and engine.

“Pride, yes. Pressure, no,” he said. “There will be difficult moments, there will be times when you're not winning, and I have to keep working on my mindset, on myself, and developing as a driver. Because the day Audi gives me the opportunity to win, with a winning car and a winning engine - and it will happen, I don't think it will take that long - I'll have to be ready to show what I can do.”

He said the competitive order could shift quickly, even though Hadjar and Antonelli are currently closer to the ultimate goal of a world championship. Bortoleto is 15th in the drivers’ standings, while Audi is eighth in the constructors’ championship.

“Right now, Hadjar and Kimi are definitely closer to the ultimate goal, which is winning a world championship. But everything could change in a year. You never know. I just have to keep doing my best,” he said.

One adviser he frequently consults is Mattia Binotto, who leads Audi’s Formula 1 project. Binotto experienced Ferrari’s successful years from within the team and has worked through different periods in its history. He is now helping build a new operation with ambitions of reaching the front, and Bortoleto said that background helps him understand the situation facing the young driver.

“I talk to Mattia a lot,” Bortoleto said. “I often ask him for help with this situation because I know he has a lot of experience and understands what I'm going through now. He's already been part of a winning team, and now he's in a team that wants to win. He helps me a lot.”

Their relationship has grown beyond the formal connection Bortoleto expected to have with the person running the team. He described Binotto as a mentor, friend and boss, and said he can also approach him for personal advice.

“He's a mentor, a friend, a boss, but he's also very different from what I imagined,” Bortoleto said. “Because normally, when you have a boss, the relationship is a bit formal. But he's different. I don't just see him as a boss, but also as someone I can go to for advice about my personal life. That's a really nice aspect of our relationship.”

Bortoleto also speaks with Max Verstappen, whom he counts as a friend and with whom he shares an interest in sim racing. Their discussions cover Bortoleto’s feelings, development, expectations of Audi and the team’s progress. He is particularly interested in Verstappen’s perspective on how Red Bull operated before it became a championship-winning team.

“I talk to Max often,” Bortoleto said. “Obviously, the details stay between us, but we often talk about how I'm feeling, how I'm developing, what I want from Audi and how we're progressing as a team. I ask him questions about what he experienced at Red Bull before winning the world championship: what things were like, how the team worked.”

Some of those questions come up while the two are playing games. “These are things that sometimes come into my head while we're playing, so I ask him,” Bortoleto said. Binotto offers experience inside a successful organisation and in developing a team with ambitions to win; Verstappen can speak to years spent working towards a first world championship. Bortoleto values both perspectives as he grows as a driver and as a member of a team not yet ready to fight for victories.

His willingness to wait now contrasts with his attitude during his junior career, when he would not consider an alternative to reaching Formula 1. Asked whether he ever had a Plan B, he answered, “Never.” He acknowledged that people told him this was the wrong approach, since motorsport has other professional categories where drivers can compete at a high level, but Formula 1 had been his childhood dream.

People around him raised the possibility that an F1 seat might not come. The number of seats was limited, turnover among drivers was low, and many talented racers had missed out. Bortoleto recalled being asked what he would do if he won Formula 3 and Formula 2 but still did not reach Formula 1.

“They would tell me, 'Even if you win Formula 3, and even if you're winning Formula 2, what are you going to do if it doesn't happen,” he said. “And I'd reply, 'I can't get that into my head. Don't even tell me that.' I'd get angry and walk away.”

He went on to win the Formula 3 title as a rookie before moving up to Formula 2 the following year. A key episode in that campaign came at Monza in 2024, during qualifying at a critical point in his championship contest with Hadjar. Bortoleto went into the gravel at the first Lesmo, leaving him facing a possible start from the back while his title rival was due to start third.

For several minutes, Bortoleto worried about the effect on his title hopes. He recalled thinking that both drivers had the same cars and that overtaking would be difficult, a concern shared by the engineers. “I said to myself, 'I'm starting last, he's starting third. Even if I drive the race of my life, where can I finish? We all have the same cars, it's not as if one is much better than another. Even the engineers were saying it wouldn't be easy to overtake,” he said.

Bortoleto won the race. “With everything that happened during the race, winning was an incredible feeling for me. Something really special.” At the time, he had not signed an F1 contract and understood that each chance to demonstrate his ability could affect his prospects. “I had to show that I deserved an opportunity,” he said.

The confirmation of a Formula 1 seat came after talks with Audi had continued for some time. Bortoleto did not know whether the opportunity would be for 2025 or 2026. When his manager called to tell him the announcement date, he initially thought the news concerned a later season.

“I said to him, 'What announcement? For 2026?' And he said, 'No, for 2025!' I replied, 'What are you talking about, 2025?' And he said, 'You'll be racing as a full-time driver in 2025.'”

Bortoleto was at his home in Milan with his girlfriend when he received the news, and he immediately called his family in Brazil. He made a video call with his father, mother and brother and told them to stop what they were doing because he had something to share. “I remember my mum was crying, my brother was incredibly excited and my father didn't know what to say,” he said.

For him, the moment represented more than securing a contract. It brought to mind two decades of karting, travel and sacrifices by his parents, including time his father spent away from home and races he missed because he had to work. Bortoleto said he was too young to fully understand many of those sacrifices as they happened.

“It's impossible to explain what it means,” he said. “But it's the result of 20 years of work. I know how many days my father wasn't at home, how many races he couldn't come to watch when I was little because he had to work.”

The Bortoleto family had no earlier connection to motorsport. His father worked in internet and telecommunications, according to the source account, which ends before completing further details about his work. Bortoleto’s path from karting through Formula 3 and Formula 2 has now brought him to Audi, where he says he is willing to wait for the chance to compete at the front.