When experience advises youth. Rubens Barrichello, the man with 323 Grand Prix wins in Formula 1, was the latest guest on the official podcast of the discipline, “Beyond the Grid”. If the 52-year-old Brazilian looked back at length on his rich career, he also spoke about the future and in particular one of his successors, who is none other than Gabriel Bortoleto.
The future Sauber/Audi driver will be the first Brazilian to start in Formula 1 since Felipe Massa, who left the discipline after a year off in 2017. Eight years later, the South American country will finally have a representative on the grid, a long (and unprecedented) wait which unleashes crowds and expectations.
“A lot of expectations from the public” around Bortoleto
Precisely, the young Paulist will be closely followed, and therefore very scrutinized, by a whole people who expect a lot from him. Bortoleto will follow in the footsteps of Massa, Barrichello, Senna or Fittipaldi, a heavy task and pressure that he will have to bear from his first year, warns the ex-Ferrari driver.
“I really like it. For now, it's not a question of riding ability, it's a question of whether he's ready to rise to the occasion, underlines Rubens Barrichello. [En Formule 1]people look at you differently, the paddock watches you. At the moment, everything is going admirably well. He is a very good pilot. We just have to see how he evolves in his mind management, in his way of handling things, because there is going to be a lot of pressure. This is the next one [Brésilien en F1] : for a very long time we did not have [de pilote]. There are a lot of expectations from the public, so we have to see. »
Formula 2 leader before the last two meetings of the season (Qatar and Abu Dhabi), Gabriel Bortoleto still has time to realize that he will be a Formula 1 driver next year with Sauber/Audi. His popularity rating, in Brazil or elsewhere, is already very high. Proof of this: in São Paulo, a few days before his officialization, he was already adored by his compatriots, all impatient to see him on the track on March 16, in Melbourne, for the launch of the 2025 season.
READ ALSO > Bortoleto relieved to have a wheel in F1 from 2025: “I didn't want to stay a year without driving”
