GABRIEL Bortoleto has signed a multi-year contract to drive for Sauber in 2025.
Bortoleto is the F2 Championship leader in a competition that features Oliver Bearman and Andrea Kimi Antonelli who will both make full-time F1 debuts in 2025.
Bortoleto will partner German veteran Nico Hulkenberg in what is a new line up for the team that will be taken over by Audi in 2026, being amongst at least four full-time rookies being signed for the 2025 season hoping to impress at the pinnacle of motorsport.
This decision means that Sauber’s current pairing of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas will be without a seat next year.
Sauber chief operating and technical officer Mattia Binotto said: “Bortoleto is one of the most talented and high potential drivers we have as rookies, we have chosen to give Gabriel his F1 debut as we have been impressed by his performances so far”.
Binotto added that he had been reassured by the performances of Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto since Williams drafted him for the end of the current season, saying: “seeing young drivers do well gave me more confidence that Gabriel can do well from the start”.
Bortoleto, who was F3 champion in his debut season in 2023 before moving up the ranks to F2 this year, has already demonstrated in the junior categories that he has what it takes to be a winning driver.
Bortoleto started his first F2 race on pole earlier this year, however this was followed by some poor results including three consecutive retirements.
The season comeback started for the young Brazilian at Imola in the fourth round as he took pole and a first F2 podium followed by a maiden victory at The Red Bull Ring in June.
Bortoleto then ramped up his driving and added an impressive feature race win at Monza in September, before taking the championship lead last round in Baku.
With only two races remaining; Qatar and Abu-Dhabi, Bortoleto has the chance to become just the sixth driver to win the F2 title in their rookie campaign
The Brazilian driver is managed by two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and has been a part of the Mclaren development programme, who said in a statement they would release him at the end of the 2024 season.
Bortoleto talking about Alonso said: “before i was born he started racing in F1, and now I will be racing against him. He has helped me a lot in my racing journey, it will be fun and I will have a good time with him”.
Bortoleto is the first full-time driver representing Brazil since Felipe Massa retired at the end of the 2017 season, so he has a lot of expectation on his shoulders.
