Sauber has been prolific with its upgrade cycle in the opening races of Formula 1’s 2025 season, and the Swiss team has aimed to show Audi “a positive trend” and simultaneously improve its processes back at base.
The Hinwil team has introduced a revised floor and rear wing assembly for the Japanese Grand Prix, having previously trialled a new front wing in Australia and new sidepods in China. This follows on from the team’s busy end to 2024, in which it appeared to drastically pick up the pace with its cadence of updates.
Performance director Stefano Sordo pointed to the “poor” season that the team endured in 2024, in which it picked up only four points courtesy of Zhou Guanyu’s eighth-place finish in Qatar. This followed the introduction of a new floor, which offered Sauber a much needed, if not late, boost.
Asked by Autosport if Sauber had changed its approach, with it put to him that the consensus was that it had largely eschewed early-season upgrades in 2024 to focus its resources on preparing for 2026, Sordo explained that the team felt it necessary to up its development as a means to also improve its infrastructure.
“We obviously had a very bad season last year, and the reality is that with Audi coming in, we have to show that we are in a positive trend,” Sordo explained.
“Don’t forget that as we develop the car, a very important thing is that you develop the tools as well, and the tools will always help you develop in the next car.
Sauber Detail
Photo by: Jake Boxall-Legge
“I think in order to develop a good 2026 car, we have to develop the tools in order to put together a decent car this year anyway – it’s obviously key to developing a car. That was the fundamental idea.”
Sordo stated that the team has targeted an increase in downforce with its new floor, albeit in a way that does not compromise the driveability of its C45 chassis.
He added that the floor was open to being developed in stages – with Sauber modifying the diffuser, floor fences, and edge for Suzuka. This, Sordo explained, allowed it to be reactive to any changes that may be needed to any of the other surfaces.
“It’s quite difficult to find the edge where you can push [the design]; we collect lots of data on track, and you try to calibrate all the tools to take that into account, but it’s very easy to be greedy and to fall off the edge.
“These cars are very tricky in that respect, many teams have reverted back to some of the previous designs, obviously bouncing is an issue.
“The floor is developed in stages – let’s say three stages. The first stage is the main surfaces, and then stage two and stage three, there are more of the details.
Sauber Detail
Photo by: Jake Boxall-Legge
“Stage two and stage three come later on, so you’ve got time to react to it. We try to bake in the time so that we can react to the issues of the car.
“We want to develop aerodynamics that are, let’s say, as benign as possible, but we always react, especially in the last two stages of the design.
“It’s detailed work, but I think on these cars it’s very much about precise detailed work that makes a big difference.”
Photos from Japanese GP – Practice
In this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Formula 1
Sauber
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Sauber has been prolific with its upgrade cycle in the opening races of Formula 1’s 2025 season, and the Swiss team has aimed to show Audi “a positive trend” and simultaneously improve its processes back at base.
The Hinwil team has introduced a revised floor and rear wing assembly for the Japanese Grand Prix, having previously trialled a new front wing in Australia and new sidepods in China. This follows on from the team’s busy end to 2024, in which it appeared to drastically pick up the pace with its cadence of updates.
Performance director Stefano Sordo pointed to the “poor” season that the team endured in 2024, in which it picked up only four points courtesy of Zhou Guanyu’s eighth-place finish in Qatar. This followed the introduction of a new floor, which offered Sauber a much needed, if not late, boost.
Asked by Autosport if Sauber had changed its approach, with it put to him that the consensus was that it had largely eschewed early-season upgrades in 2024 to focus its resources on preparing for 2026, Sordo explained that the team felt it necessary to up its development as a means to also improve its infrastructure.
“We obviously had a very bad season last year, and the reality is that with Audi coming in, we have to show that we are in a positive trend,” Sordo explained.
“Don’t forget that as we develop the car, a very important thing is that you develop the tools as well, and the tools will always help you develop in the next car.
Sauber Detail
Photo by: Jake Boxall-Legge
“I think in order to develop a good 2026 car, we have to develop the tools in order to put together a decent car this year anyway – it’s obviously key to developing a car. That was the fundamental idea.”
Sordo stated that the team has targeted an increase in downforce with its new floor, albeit in a way that does not compromise the driveability of its C45 chassis.
He added that the floor was open to being developed in stages – with Sauber modifying the diffuser, floor fences, and edge for Suzuka. This, Sordo explained, allowed it to be reactive to any changes that may be needed to any of the other surfaces.
“It’s quite difficult to find the edge where you can push [the design]; we collect lots of data on track, and you try to calibrate all the tools to take that into account, but it’s very easy to be greedy and to fall off the edge.
“These cars are very tricky in that respect, many teams have reverted back to some of the previous designs, obviously bouncing is an issue.
“The floor is developed in stages – let’s say three stages. The first stage is the main surfaces, and then stage two and stage three, there are more of the details.
Sauber Detail
Photo by: Jake Boxall-Legge
“Stage two and stage three come later on, so you’ve got time to react to it. We try to bake in the time so that we can react to the issues of the car.
“We want to develop aerodynamics that are, let’s say, as benign as possible, but we always react, especially in the last two stages of the design.
“It’s detailed work, but I think on these cars it’s very much about precise detailed work that makes a big difference.”
In this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Formula 1
Sauber
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Sauber is looking into the possibility Gabriel Bortoleto’s race-ending crash last weekend was not caused by driver error.
Bortoleto crashed out of his first grand prix on lap 46, shortly after he changed to intermediate tyres as the rain returned. He originally believed he lost control of his car on a kerb and apologised to the team for his mistake.
However speaking in today’s FIA press conference Bortoleto said Sauber has not ruled out mechanical failure as a contributing factor. He said contact between him and Nico Hulkenberg on the first lap of the race may have weakened a suspension part and led to it failing later.
“We are still struggling to fully understand what happened there,” he said. “What is clear for us is that there was contact, I think with Nico.
“It was a racing incident – it was very small contact in turn three. We were side by side, and he had a small snap and touched my rear tyre. I didn’t even feel it at the moment, but when we re-watched the race, we saw it. So maybe that’s one of the possibilities.”
The team’s analysis has produced “nothing conclusive” so far, said Bortoleto. “The team is still studying and analysing it back at the factory to try to understand the real reason why it broke.
“We also need to determine if it influenced my spin the corner before or if that was purely my mistake from hitting the kerb.”
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Bortoleto also confirmed he experienced braking problems throughout much of the race. Aside from those difficulties he felt his first grand prix weekend was “very solid”.
“Quali was good, [free practice sessions] were very solid as well,” he said. “I improved a lot through the sessions. In quali I managed to do a decent lap in Q1 and then tried a bit too hard in Q2.
“But in the race it was very tricky. I’ve heard from some drivers that there won’t be many races more difficult than this one in your career – slicks to wet, then wet to slicks again, dry, then wet again.
“A lot of things happened, and we take learnings from that – how to behave in a race like this, when to push, when to not push, when to take risks. And obviously, through the race as well, we had some fights around, and it was just good to understand a bit how racing in Formula 1 is.”
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Sauber is looking into the possibility Gabriel Bortoleto’s race-ending crash last weekend was not caused by driver error.
Bortoleto crashed out of his first grand prix on lap 46, shortly after he changed to intermediate tyres as the rain returned. He originally believed he lost control of his car on a kerb and apologised to the team for his mistake.
However speaking in today’s FIA press conference Bortoleto said Sauber has not ruled out mechanical failure as a contributing factor. He said contact between him and Nico Hulkenberg on the first lap of the race may have weakened a suspension part and led to it failing later.
“We are still struggling to fully understand what happened there,” he said. “What is clear for us is that there was contact, I think with Nico.
“It was a racing incident – it was very small contact in turn three. We were side by side, and he had a small snap and touched my rear tyre. I didn’t even feel it at the moment, but when we re-watched the race, we saw it. So maybe that’s one of the possibilities.”
The team’s analysis has produced “nothing conclusive” so far, said Bortoleto. “The team is still studying and analysing it back at the factory to try to understand the real reason why it broke.
“We also need to determine if it influenced my spin the corner before or if that was purely my mistake from hitting the kerb.”
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Bortoleto also confirmed he experienced braking problems throughout much of the race. Aside from those difficulties he felt his first grand prix weekend was “very solid”.
“Quali was good, [free practice sessions] were very solid as well,” he said. “I improved a lot through the sessions. In quali I managed to do a decent lap in Q1 and then tried a bit too hard in Q2.
“But in the race it was very tricky. I’ve heard from some drivers that there won’t be many races more difficult than this one in your career – slicks to wet, then wet to slicks again, dry, then wet again.
“A lot of things happened, and we take learnings from that – how to behave in a race like this, when to push, when to not push, when to take risks. And obviously, through the race as well, we had some fights around, and it was just good to understand a bit how racing in Formula 1 is.”
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As expected, very few genuinely new parts arrived at the Australian Grand Prix as the 10 Formula 1 teams sought to put more mileage on the packages they ran with in Bahrain testing.
That’s not to say anyone didn’t dabble in a bit of early update fun; Sauber introduced a new set of wings for the opening race, McLaren had a circuit-specific set of rear wings to test, and Red Bull spent the weekend with differing nose concepts – as it had on the final day in the Bahrain prelude.
It’s common practice for teams to implement a design ‘freeze’ where they take a snapshot of the car to carry into the build phase, and any subsequent developments trickling through the pipeline are usually packaged up and brought to a race further down the road.
Updates only tend to be seen in the early rounds if a team has chosen to fast-track something, albeit usually if something has gone wrong on the original launch-spec machinery, or if there’s a circuit-specific addition that might yield gains. The latter case is more likely if, like in 2025, the pre-season test venue differs to the location of the opening round.
McLaren’s beam wing experiments
McLaren may be the pacesetter but it’s still looking at ways it can improve
Although its MCL39 has produced envious glances from rival teams, McLaren has not taken anything for granted. Last year, the team shuffled through numerous rear wing geometries in order to balance the car for a range of venues, and it has continued on that trajectory; it had both a high-load single and double beam wing to compare and contrast.
The single-beam wing formed part of a higher-downforce wing that the squad trialled in FP1, while the double-beam set-up formed part of the lower-range downforce wing that the team was seen running throughout the Bahrain test.
The former wing was used throughout the duration of the weekend, although it is unlikely that the lower-downforce variant was ever in consideration for Melbourne; it’s possible that this might be explored further in China to see if the car can benefit from the greater straight-line efficiency along Shanghai’s 1.2km back straight.
Running a double-beam wing with the lower-downforce wing geometry effectively redistributes some of the load generation further down, linking up with the diffuser. Naturally, this also produces less drag overall.
Red Bull’s differing specs
The Red Bull drivers ran different nose configurations during Australian practice
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson ran to slightly different specifications over the Australia weekend, with Verstappen running the shorter, wider nose that the team trialled on its RB21 on the final day of Bahrain testing and a different floor. Lawson, in contrast, appeared to use the specification that the team began the test with, retaining the longer nose.
This was part of Red Bull’s continued exploration of how to get the most out of its package, as it missed out on implementing a race-style run in testing due to a series of teething problems in Bahrain.
PLUS: Analysing Red Bull’s new nose job in Bahrain testing
“We did some big set-up changes in Bahrain,” Christian Horner reflected. “We wanted to go to extremes to understand set-up parameters so that you’ve got your toolbox and knowledge when you go racing. I think the characteristics that this car has is much calmer than the RB20, so I think it’s a platform to develop through the season.
“There’s not the nasty snaps that there was on the RB20 so that gives us a good dynamic platform for us to develop the car through the season through all the different races that we’re going to head to.”
Sauber opts for new wings in Australia
Upgraded wings seemed to help Sauber to take a step forward in Melbourne
A new front and rear wing helped Sauber find some progression from testing, which allowed it to break into Q2 courtesy of Gabriel Bortoleto’s last-ditch effort to bump Andrea Kimi Antonelli from the top 15.
The team had briefly trialled the new front wing in testing in Bahrain, but it was given a proper run in Australia as the team switched to a more conventional inboard-loaded wing; here, the part of the wing closest to the junction to the nose is responsible for generating most of the downforce.
This contrasts to the outboard-loaded wing, where the centre-to-outside span of each side generates the bulk of the front-end load. The team also had a higher-downforce rear wing in Melbourne, complete with a straight trailing edge and more camber in the mainplane.
Technical director James Key explained that, although the wings had done their job, the team still needed to explore their full potential.
“I think they did work, which is great,” said Key. “The front wing particularly was clearly working pretty well.
“Whether we had set the car up well enough around these new parts, that’s what we’ve all been questioning because I think we could definitely have done with a bit more front end, both in quali and the race.”
In this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Formula 1
McLaren
Sauber
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The Australian Grand Prix was an eventful season opener for Formula 1, and the wet/dry/wet conditions put drivers’ and engineers’ skills to the test. Let’s begin with a clear winner from Round 1:
The McLaren team celebrates
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Way to pick up where you left off. Everyone expected McLaren to start 2025 at the front, and the reigning world champion squad duly delivered with a one-two in qualifying, which really should have been a one-two in the race but for Oscar Piastri’s off in Turn 12.
Lando Norris escaped an excursion in the same corner to deliver a composed victory drive, withstanding late pressure from Max Verstappen. But more ominous is McLaren’s pace advantage in the dry and the way it was able to both warm up the tyres better than Red Bull but also make them last longer, which is a rare but coveted combination.
Piastri’s spin, which demoted him to ninth in the end, kept the dreaded Australian podium curse intact, but it didn’t dampen enthusiasm for what should be McLaren’s year. Its title defence is well and truly up and running.
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Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Ferrari looked like it was going to be McLaren’s closest challenger this weekend, all the way until Q2 in qualifying. But it lost pace over one lap, struggling with overheating, and from their midfield starting positions Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton didn’t really look like they were going places during the race either.
Their fortunes could have changed had the Scuderia responded better to the change in climatic conditions. Mercedes and Williams timed their late stop to intermediates beautifully, but Ferrari left both cars out too long in a gamble that, with the benefit of hindsight, was not only the wrong call but also quite risky to commit to with both cars rather than hedging one’s bets with a split strategy.
Ferrari does have a strong car in there, but it will have to execute both its qualifying and races runs better in China’s demanding sprint weekend to exploit it. Hamilton didn’t have the greatest Ferrari debut but will need a bit time to gel with both the car and the team.
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Alex Albon, Williams
Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images
Much was made of Alexander Albon facing a stiff challenge by being joined by Carlos Sainz this year. That might yet be the case once the Spaniard is fully up to speed at his new employer, but Albon has had a very bright start to the year in Melbourne, showing great pace in qualifying to claim sixth on the grid.
The English-born Thai driver didn’t put a foot wrong in a challenging race either, and utilised Williams’ correct strategy calls to stay up front and almost contend for a podium. It is encouraging for Williams to have a car that seemed well-rounded enough to be competitive in tough wet conditions, and having 10 points in the bank early on will provide a big morale boost.
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Isack Hadjar, RB F1 Team crash
Photo by: Kym Illman – Getty Images
Melbourne’s wet-weather chaos was a rare opportunity for plenty of teams to bank a lot of points, see Williams and Sauber above, and Racing Bulls will have to be frustrated that it couldn’t capitalise on the great pace the car had shown all weekend.
It appears as though Yuki Tsunoda has made another step forward this year as RB’s de facto team leader, putting in superb drives in qualifying and the race. But his points bid came undone with a pitstop for inters that came too late, much like the Ferraris’.
Isack Hadjar’s F1 debut was as short-lived as it was heartbreaking, the youngster inconsolable after crashing out at Turn 1 of the formation lap. It was a brutal introduction to F1, but the Frenchman had been putting together an impressive weekend until that point, so he will just have to dust himself off and go again in Shanghai.
There are no guarantees that Racing Bulls will be as competitive on other circuits as it was on the rather unique Albert Park layout, so this is quite simply a huge missed opportunity. No two ways about it.
Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
At first, we were just going to include Nico Hulkenberg here, but the entire team deserves a mention for the opening race it has had following a dismal 2024. Having chased points all season to finally score four in the penultimate race in Qatar, it has now already scored six right off the bat.
The experienced Hulkenberg’s composed drive in the wet played a big part, as did the squad’s impeccable strategy where others faltered. It is certainly a big lift for the plagued Hinwil squad, that looked unlikely after a mediocre qualifying session.
Although Gabriel Bortoleto crashed out, he was also rather impressive with his speed and attitude all weekend. The Brazilian rookie was assertive after being presented with Helmut Marko’s ‘B-driver’ comments. And rather than feeling nervous about a wet-weather debut, Bortoleto seemed to embrace the opportunity to finish out of Sauber’s usual position and accelerate his learning.
Bortoleto, who was nursing a race-long brake issue, eventually crashed out like several of his peers, but he will find more chances to impress this season if the car allows it.
Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
It was a Red Bull debut to forget for Liam Lawson. In the dry his qualifying runs were messy as he appeared to overdrive a bit to compensate his lack of FP3 running with an engine issue, with his one completed lap only 18th fastest.
Starting from the pitlane was a difficult task, but as Antonelli proved, all was not lost in such a chaotic wet-dry-wet race. What was a little bit alarming was the initial pace on the inters, as Lawson was stuck in no man’s land between the Saubers and the Haas cars.
Lawson’s actual crash in the race can be swept under the rug as he was left out on slicks too long, but the damage had long been done by then. The Melbourne weekend was a bit of a disaster all-round, and while it sounds silly to say after race one of a 24-round season, he can’t afford too many repeats before the ghosts of the past starting circling around Red Bull’s difficult second seat.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
People understandably wondered if young Andrea Kimi Antonelli would be ready for his grand F1 debut, but you don’t end up in a Mercedes F1 car by accident and the Italian phenom has already started showing why he was fast-tracked to replace Lewis Hamilton.
A small error in qualifying left him 16th on the grid for what was going to be his second-ever drive in a Formula 1 car in the wet. It had all sorts of potential to go wrong, and indeed he was fortunate to spin off where he did without clattering the barriers.
But his spin didn’t faze him and instead he locked in to complete a remarkable rise from 16th to fourth, aided by impeccable strategy by Mercedes for both himself and team-mate George Russell, who drove a composed race to third and equally deserved to be in this category. Antonelli ended up being reinstated to fourth after an incorrect unsafe release penalty, which meant Mercedes scored a huge result for the pace it actually had.
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The result has not only provided an early vindication for Mercedes’ choice to back Antonelli, but may also take off some of the pressure for the Italian himself. He is where he belongs.
Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Haas has been on the back foot all weekend with Oliver Bearman’s crash in FP1 costing him valuable track time, while Esteban Ocon also lost a bit of running for minor issues. Another off for Bearman in qualifying further limited his mileage, and in the end Ocon and Bearman couldn’t manage better than a distant 13th and 14th.
But while a tidier weekend could have made things much easier for Haas, the bigger issue is that the pace just doesn’t seem to be there at the moment, as Haas is the slowest team at the moment. Will there be more performance to unlock, both with the base car and early-season upgrades? You’d hope so, because if there isn’t, 2025 might be a bit of a dud for Ocon and Bearman.
Photos from Australian GP – Race
In this article
Filip Cleeren
Formula 1
Alex Albon
Liam Lawson
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Ferrari
Sauber
McLaren
Racing Bulls
Haas F1 Team
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In issuing a classy response to Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko branding him as only a “B” calibre driver, Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto has continued his strong start to life in the Formula 1 media spotlight.
Two weeks ago in the Bahrain test, Bortoleto was frank but angst-less in discussing how restrictions on F1’s Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) rule – cut to 1,000km over just four days and split across both drivers in a team – means he arrives as one of the least prepared drivers in the championship’s history given the ongoing restriction on pre- and in-season testing.
By comparison, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was able to log nearly 5,000 miles of running in older and then current machinery ahead of his F1 bow in 2007.
Some of Bortoleto’s deficit stems from his late signing for Sauber in November 2024 – as it meant he did not complete lengthy TPC programmes such as those run by Alpine for Jack Doohan ahead of his F1 graduation.
Now in Melbourne for the 2025 season opener after speaking eloquently on one niggling matter for rookie drivers in Bahrain, Bortoleto had to confront another in being questioned on the barbs of Marko.
Appearing on Red Bull’s in-house broadcaster ServusTV on Monday, Marko was asked to grade the five 2025 rookies other than Liam Lawson.
Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
He declared Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Haas driver Oliver Bearman as “A” drivers – albeit with caveats regarding pressure on the former in debuting in F1 with Mercedes and a question about the risks he views as the latter often taking – and gave the same ‘grade’ to new Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar.
Marko dismissed Alpine’s Jack Doohan – another Red Bull junior between 2017-2021 – as a “C driver – I don’t think he’ll complete the full season” and gave Bortoleto just one grade higher.
“I’d rate him a B driver,” said Marko. “He’s a very intelligent racer – he won the Formula 3 championship [in 2023], but with only one victory. He tends to stay out of trouble.
“In Formula 2, he had only two wins. He’s a driver who brings the car home, has a solid grasp of strategy and tyre management, but I don’t see that ultimate speed in him.”
When these comments were put to Bortoleto in Melbourne, he replied: “I don’t care. I’ve seen that and I love challenges.
“Hearing that from Helmut – he’s a guy who has put a lot of talent in Formula 1 and has put a lot of wrong talents in F1. So, you can see he got it right and wrong and hopefully I will prove him wrong.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, Isack Hadjar, RB F1 Team, Carlos Sainz, Williams, Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
“But nothing I say now in the media will change his mind – just my results on track. I’m sure I’ll prove him wrong at some point and hopefully he will admit this.
“For now, I’m just focusing on doing my job and improving and doing the best I can. I’m proud of what I did in the junior series and I won in F2 and F3 against the Red Bull drivers he has, so good for me.”
Also speaking in Melbourne was Fernando Alonso – who has Bortoleto signed to his A14 management company.
While not asked about Marko’s comments, Alonso instead opined again on Bortoleto’s “dedication and his professionalism towards racing” – after being full of praise for his charge late in 2024.
“[That] has been probably the most impressive thing,” Alonso added. “Since day one, he was very committed to work hard for his dreams – already in FRECA but then in Formula 3 and then Formula 2, each race was very well prepared and a very mature approach.
“I think he deserves to be in Formula 1 and hopefully [has] a long career here and [is] successful. He has been the best rookie of this next generation that we see so many rookies [coming] into F1 this year.
“He has been the best of them, so [although] maybe he doesn’t have the car at the moment to match their results the first year, hopefully people don’t forget what he did in the last two.”
With track action in Melbourne under a day away, Bortoleto doesn’t have long to wait in his quiet quest to prove one of F1’s biggest talkers wrong.
Photos from Australian GP – Thursday
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In this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Formula 1
Gabriel Bortoleto
Sauber
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In issuing a classy response to Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko branding him as only a “B” calibre driver, Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto has continued his strong start to life in the Formula 1 media spotlight glare.
Two weeks ago in the Bahrain test, Bortoleto was frank but angst-less in discussing how restrictions on F1’s Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) rule – cut to 1,000km over just four days and split across both drivers in a team – means he arrives as one of the least prepared drivers in the championship’s history given the ongoing restriction on pre- and in-season testing.
By comparison, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was able to log nearly 5,000 miles of running in older and then current machinery ahead of his F1 bow in 2007.
Some of Bortoleto’s deficit stems from his late signing for Sauber in November 2024 – as it meant he did not complete lengthy TPC programmes such as those run by Alpine for Jack Doohan ahead of his F1 graduation.
Now on the ground in Melbourne for the 2025 season opener after speaking eloquently on one niggling matter for rookie drivers in Bahrain, Bortoleto had to confront another in being questioned on the barbs of Marko.
Appearing on Red Bull’s in-house broadcaster ServusTV on Monday, Marko was asked to grade the five 2025 rookies other than Liam Lawson.
Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
He declared Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Haas driver Oliver Bearman as “A” drivers – albeit with caveats regarding pressure on the former in debuting in F1 with Mercedes and a question about the risks he views as the latter often taking – and gave the same ‘grade’ to new Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar.
Marko dismissed Alpine’s Jack Doohan – another Red Bull junior between 2017-2021 – as a “C driver – I don’t think he’ll complete the full season” and gave Bortoleto just one grade higher.
“I’d rate him a B driver,” said Marko. “He’s a very intelligent racer – he won the Formula 3 championship [in 2023], but with only one victory. He tends to stay out of trouble.
“In Formula 2, he had only two wins. He’s a driver who brings the car home, has a solid grasp of strategy and tyre management, but I don’t see that ultimate speed in him.”
When these comments were put to Bortoleto in Melbourne, he replied: “I don’t care. I’ve seen that and I love challenges.
“Hearing that from Helmut – he’s a guy who has put a lot of talent in Formula 1 and has put a lot of wrong talents in F1. So, you can see he got it right and wrong and hopefully I will prove him wrong.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, Isack Hadjar, RB F1 Team, Carlos Sainz, Williams, Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
“But nothing I say now in the media will change his mind – just my results on track. I’m sure I’ll prove him wrong at some point and hopefully he will admit this.
“For now, I’m just focussing on doing my job and improving and doing the best I can. I’m proud of what I did in the junior series and I won in F2 and F3 against the Red Bull drivers he has, so good for me.”
Also speaking in Melbourne was Fernando Alonso – who has Bortoleto signed to his A14 management company.
While not asked about Marko’s comments, Alonso instead opined again on Bortoleto’s “dedication and his professionalism towards racing” – after being full of praise for his charge late in 2024.
“[That] has been probably the most impressive thing,” Alonso added. “Since day one, he was very committed to work hard for his dreams – already in FRECA but then in Formula 3 and then Formula 2, each race was very well prepared and a very mature approach.
“I think he deserves to be in Formula 1 and hopefully [has] a long career here and [is] successful. He has been the best rookie of this next generation that we see so many rookies [coming] into F1 this year.
“He has been the best of them, so [although] maybe he doesn’t have the car at the moment to match their results the first year, hopefully people don’t forget what he did in the last two.”
With track sessions in Melbourne now under a day away, Bortoleto doesn’t have long to wait in his quiet quest to prove one of F1’s biggest talkers wrong.
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Alex Kalinauckas
Formula 1
Gabriel Bortoleto
Sauber
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Nico Hulkenberg expects a difficult start to his first race back at Sauber after driving the team’s new C45 chassis in pre-season testing.
Sauber finished at the bottom of the championship standings last year. Hulkenberg, who last drove for the team in 2013 and has returned to them from Haas, sayid they “need to wait and see” where they will stand in the pecking order this year.
“In Bahrain the car felt challenging to drive,” he told the official F1 channel. “I think we’ve identified a few problems, it wasn’t optimal there.
“Obviously we’ll give it our best shot here but I think it’s very hard to predict and to tell but I expect a challenging weekend.”
The team’s fastest lap time over three days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit was the slowest in the field, though all 10 new cars for 2025 were covered by just 1.7 seconds. Sauber will become Audi’s works team next year and has made it clear it is prioritising work on its 2026 car.
Nonetheless Hulkenberg is upbeat about returning to racing in Melbourne this weekend. “Of course starting a new season things are always exciting and it’s always a good and happy feeling,” he said.
“I’m not the biggest fan of winter periods when there’s no racing and there’s too much downtime. You can get some crazy and funny ideas so I’m very happy that the season will start and all the noise around you stops and you focus on the racing and what’s important and what matters.”
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Sauber has also confirmed former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will take over as its new team principal next month. Hulkenberg has already spoken to Wheatley ahead of his arrival.
“Everyone is looking forward for him to get going,” said Hulkenberg. “I think he will be a good addition to have at the team.
“Obviously he comes with a huge wealth of experience and from one of the teams that has been pretty dominant in the last decade. I’m sure he can contribute a lot, short-term, mid-term and long-term. So I look forward to that.
“I’ve known him obviously from the paddock for many years but we’ve never worked closely together. I look forward to start that too.”
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In the first of a new mini-series where Autosport is delving into the burgeoning Formula 1 careers of the six 2025 rookies, today we’re introducing new Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto.
The 20-year-old hails from Sao Paulo and has already built an impressive junior motorsport career.
Like Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri before him, Bortoleto arrives at the top tier having won back-to-back Formula 3 (known as GP3 when Leclerc and Russell won this title) and Formula 2 championships at the first attempt.
Before then, he produced decent returns in Italian Formula 4 and the Formula Regional European championship after moving to Italy aged 13 with his coach Francesco di Mauro.
Bortoleto’s family have considerable wealth, with his father Lincoln Oliveira getting rich in Brazil’s telecommunications industry in the 1990s. They are understood to have had close links with Brazil’s most recent debuting F1 driver, Felipe Nasr, on his way up the single-seater ranks before making his own F1 bow with Sauber back in 2015.
But that’s far from Bortoleto’s only existing tie to the top of the single-seater ladder, as he has been managed by Fernando Alonso’s A14 company since 2023.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Invicta Racing celebrates after winning the championship
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
A14 helped to secure his berth with the Trident team with which Bortoleto went on to win that year’s F3 title – taking two wins and one pole in the process.
He produced similar numbers in winning the 2024 F2 title with the Invicta squad (two wins, two poles), but what set him apart in both successful campaigns was his ability to bring home consistent points when his title rivals floundered through various stages.
By 2024, Bortoleto had joined the books at McLaren, which agreed to release him from his junior driver status to go to Sauber when the soon-to-be Audi squad came calling as 2024 concluded. McLaren will have no F1 seat openings until the end of 2026 at the earliest and Bortoleto had nowhere further to progress up the ladder.
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella spoke warmly of Bortoleto’s achievements last year, calling him “humble” and “at no point arrogant” – even when the 2024 F2 season started off with a struggle to adapt to the championship’s new spec car.
Alonso took a typically more bombastic approach compared to his former race engineer.
“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,” the Aston Martin driver said at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year. “He showed it on track with the same cars.”
When asked by Autosport how he would choose to introduce himself to F1 fans at the recent F175 Live event in London, Bortoleto replied: “I don’t know. I try to be myself as much as I can. I don’t try to be different.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Kick Sauber C45
Photo by: Sauber F1 Team
“Let’s say, when I’m on track or when I’m around cameras or whatever, I try to be who I am. Who I always was. You can say I try to be funny… (“But you are very funny,” interjected new Sauber team-mate Nico Hulkenberg) Thank you. I don’t know. I just try to be like this.
“And in the car, I believe I try to work very hard to achieve every dream I had. It was the same in Formula 3 and Formula 2. I work very hard to achieve the championships.
“A lot of days. Doing simulator work with the team. Spending time with engineers. So, I don’t think the approach will be different in Formula 1. That’s a little bit how I describe myself. But we will see this season. You will see and I don’t need to tell you because it’s even difficult for myself to speak about me.”
Hulkenberg felt he and Bortoleto bonded well during their initial sponsor commitments together in the off-season, ahead of what is expected to be a tricky campaign for the Sauber squad.
Nevertheless, Hulkenberg said Bortoleto had been “fast as hell” in Bahrain testing last month, where he also highlighted his team-mate’s abilities as a fast learner.
Elsewhere in the paddock at that event, Bortoleto’s willingness to criticise the changes to Testing of Previous Cars rules for 2025, which effectively make him one of the most unprepared F1 rookies ever in terms of mileage in older machinery combined with restricted pre-season test running, went down well in terms of the youngster showing a mature character.
Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Bortoleto now enters F1 with the weight of a motorsport-mad nation behind him. He’s well aware of the reaction granted to Argentina’s Franco Colapinto unexpected and memorable F1 run last year, which in turn raises expectations on what he might achieve in 2025.
Sauber’s likely struggles to escape Q1 on pace means he can make the expected rookie errors away from the strongest glare of the F1 media spotlight, but strong results against a driver as excellent as Hulkenberg could be the making of a long career at the top level.
Bortoleto arrives as a wealthy young racing driver looking to inspire Brazil through his charming character and racing speed. As an Ayrton Senna-like story goes, it’s already off to a solid start…
In this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Formula 1
Gabriel Bortoleto
Sauber
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
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