Gabriel Bortoleto has always been scarily quick to impress, and he continues to do so in his second year in Formula 1.
With the backing of Fernando Alonso from a young age, the young Brazilian has enjoyed a rapid rise through the motor sport ranks, culminating in back-to-back titles in F3 and F2 at the first time of asking.
He ultimately turned heads at Sauber and earned an F1 promotion for 2025. After a strong year he’s continuing the job in 2026 – and he’s being retained by Audi for 2027, too.
Here’s everything you need to know about Bortoleto’s career so far:
Junior career
After an impressive karting career, Bortoleto made his single-seater debut in the 2020 Italian F4 championship.
A fifth-place finish in the drivers’ standings earned him a promotion to the 2021 Formula Regional European Championship — a widely recognised and critical step on the motor sport ladder — where he spent back-to-back campaigns.
Progress was relatively slow as Bortoleto struggled to find consistent pace but upon stepping into the cockpit of a Formula 3 car, he put the world on notice.
In his rookie campaign of the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship, Bortoleto began the season with successive feature race victories in Sakhir and Melbourne before going on to score points in all but two of the remaining 14 rounds. He ultimately secured the title ahead of the final two races at Monza.
Formula 2
His dominant F3 campaign earned Bortoleto instant promotion into Formula 2 with Invicta Racing for 2024.
The young Brazilian — who had been scooped up by the McLaren young driver programme ahead of the season — proved to be an instant sensation, as he captured feature race victories in Austria and Monza, and podium places at Imola, Monaco, Spa, Losail and Yas Marina.
That latter result at the Abu Dhabi season finale proved to be critical, as it ultimately clinched the title for Bortoleto and entered him into a historic club, as one of only four drivers (including Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and George Russell) to win back-to-back titles in F3/GP3 and F2 before being promoted into Formula 1.
Bortoleto’s impressive progress throughout the season ultimately convinced Sauber team boss Mattia Binotto that he was ready as for an F1 promotion, and he was elected as Nico Hülkenberg‘s team-mate for 2025 — surpassing the likes of Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu and Mick Schumacher.
In his rookie Formula 1 season, Bortoleto gradually grew into the role after a difficult start, scoring his maiden points with eighth place in Austria before adding further top-10 finishes in Belgium, Italy and Mexico.
He ended 2025 with 19 points, with the standout weekend of his campaign coming in Hungary, where he qualified seventh and finished sixth – his best result of the season.
In 2025, he scored Audi’s first points as a works team, finishing ninth on the marque’s debut at the 2026 Australian GP.
The Brazilian was retained for 2027, with Mattia Binotto simply exercising the extension clauses in both drivers’ contracts, which makes it a third consecutive season for the pairing.
