Gabriel Bortoleto is a Brazilian racing driver and a member of the Audi Revolut F1 Team for the 2026 season, partnering Nico Hulkenberg. He reached Formula 1 in 2025 with Sauber, the Hinwil squad that becomes the works Audi team in 2026, and is the first Brazilian to race full-time in F1 since Felipe Massa in 2017. ¹²

His junior record is exceptional: he won the FIA Formula 3 title in 2023 and the FIA Formula 2 title in 2024, both as a rookie, making him only the fourth driver after Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri to take both championships in successive years. ³⁴

“The Hungary drive, fighting wheel-to-wheel with Alonso and Max Verstappen, was the standout of his rookie year.”

Early life and karting

Bortoleto was born on 14 October 2004 in Osasco, in the state of Sao Paulo. He comes from a motorsport family: his father, Lincoln Oliveira, is CEO of Brazil's Stock Car Pro Series. He began competitive karting in October 2011 at age seven and moved to Europe as a boy to chase a single-seater career, citing fellow Brazilian Ayrton Senna as his idol. His strongest karting season came in 2018, when he finished third in both the European and World Championships in the OK-Junior class and was vice-champion in the WSK Super Master Series. ³

Junior single-seaters

He made his car-racing debut in the 2020 Italian Formula 4 Championship with Prema, finishing fifth with one victory, his maiden weekend yielding a podium sweep at Mugello. He spent two seasons in Formula Regional, taking two wins at Spa and Barcelona for R-ace GP in 2022 to finish sixth. In 2023 he stepped up to FIA Formula 3 with Trident and won the title at the first attempt, wrapping it up at the final Monza round with a 38-point cushion. In 2024 he moved to FIA Formula 2 with Invicta Racing and won that championship too with 214.5 points, a feat that earned him the FIA Rookie of the Year award. ³

A key part of his rise was joining Fernando Alonso's A14 Management company in September 2022. Alonso publicly praised his talent and work ethic, and the mentorship of a two-time world champion gave Bortoleto both guidance and visibility as he climbed the ladder. ³⁴

Formula 1 career

Sauber signed Bortoleto for 2025 as Hulkenberg's teammate, on a multi-year deal carrying car number 5 that runs into the Audi era. He made his debut at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, where he immediately impressed by reaching Q2 and outqualifying his vastly more experienced teammate, though he spun out of the race in tricky conditions. ³⁵

His season started slowly as the team struggled, and he went the first ten rounds without a point, an early run he admitted weighed on him. The turning point came after Sauber's mid-season floor upgrade. He scored his first points with eighth place in Austria — the first Brazilian to score in F1 since 2017 — then recorded a season-best sixth at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he qualified seventh, held off Lance Stroll and was voted Driver of the Day. A further eighth place at Monza followed. ³⁵

Signature drives and the Brazil heartbreak

The Hungary drive, fighting wheel-to-wheel with Alonso and Max Verstappen, was the standout of his rookie year. The low point came at his home Brazilian Grand Prix, where a 57g sprint shunt at the Senna 'S' wrecked his weekend and he crashed again in the main race — a gut-wrenching debut in front of his home crowd. Across the year his qualifying battle with Hulkenberg, including a run of eight consecutive sessions outqualifying the German, finished level at 15-15, an extraordinary result against one of the grid's best one-lap drivers. ³⁵

He finished the 2025 championship 19th with 19 points and was widely regarded as one of the standout rookies of the year. ³

2026 season and current form

For 2026 Bortoleto stays on as the rebranded Audi team's driver under new technical and power-unit regulations, with the squad now led by CEO and Team Principal Mattia Binotto. He delivered immediately: at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix he finished ninth to score Audi's first-ever points as a works manufacturer, having reportedly seen the factory in tears when the R26 was unveiled. The campaign has since been more mixed — a non-start in China and a P13 in Japan — as Audi grapples with reliability and poor starts while running on the fringes of the top ten. ⁶⁷

Driving style and character

Bortoleto built his reputation on adaptability — mastering each rung of the junior ladder at the first attempt — and on racecraft, having won the 2024 Monza F2 feature race from last on the grid. He is seen as a mature, articulate operator for his age, and through 2025 he emphasised how much his technical understanding of car setup improved through working with his engineers. ³⁵

Bottom line

Bortoleto is one of F1's most promising young talents: a back-to-back F3 and F2 champion who impressed immediately in 2025 and opened Audi's points account in 2026, now carrying Brazil's hopes as the cornerstone driver of the manufacturer's works project. ²³⁶