Gabriel Bortoleto was crowned 2024 FIA F2 Champion. The young Brazilian driver, who will be in F1 next year with Stake (Sauber/Audi), speaks after the decisive weekend in Abu Dhabi.
The championship was decided until the last race. Already FIA F3 Champion in 2023, Gabriel Bortoleto goes straight to the FIA F2 title. Already last year, it was his consistency that led him to the title. The Brazilian has won two races this season, in Austria and at Monza in the main race, and has finished outside the points on only six occasions, out of twenty-eight races.
Champion thanks to consistency
Following his coronation, Gabriel Bortoleto spoke in an interview for the FIA F2 and looked back on his season.
“The season was very long. We've been through a lot since the beginning, where we had a lot of trouble in Jeddah and in Australia, where I had a very bad accident. The team never gave up, I never gave up either, and from that moment on I think we deserved every point we got in this championship. We were lucky, but we also created our own luck, with our pace, our work, the overtime we worked in the simulation, all the overtime we had, the late nights working on the simulations to find new things to get the car into the right window for the new circuits that were coming up for me and for the team as well. So, yes, the season was very long. My progress throughout this season has been the best of my entire life as a driver. »
By achieving the FIA F2 and FIA F3 double as a rookie, he joins Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri, the only drivers to have achieved this feat.
“They are F1 race winners, so for me it is a privilege to be surrounded by these names. These are drivers who have always inspired me when they raced in junior series and won everything, dominated championships as rookies, surprised their F1 teams, got their place in F1, grew up and won races in F1. And that's obviously one of my goals: to represent my country in F1, to win races and, hopefully, championships one day. So it's incredible to be around these names and to be one of the few people who has managed to achieve this goal. »
Gabriel Bortoleto gave the first drivers' championship to Invicta, the team that trusted him and, for him, was a big part of his final victory. They also won, with teammate Kush Maini, the team championship.
“There have been moments like this season which have been very difficult, very demanding on both sides, on my side as well as on theirs, but we have always aimed at only one objective: to win this championship, to make doing our best race after race, progressing every weekend on the track, and we did it in the best way possible. It's also great that I managed to give them the first drivers' championship they've ever had. They had already won several teams' championships, but I finally managed to give them their first drivers' championship. It was a big gamble for them, because when they signed me I wasn't even F3 champion yet. I was still in my F3 season, leading at Silverstone, it was a gamble for them at that time – betting that a rookie driver could win a championship, and I can say I did what 'they asked me. So I'm very proud of it. »
Next year, the young Brazilian driver will join Nico Hülkenberg in the F1 Stake team next season and thus joins the Audi project. The driver looks back on this year and his future in the premier category.
“Well, from this season I can say: never give up, keep pushing and be a leader, don't let the people around you discourage you. I think that's what I learned the most this year, because in the difficult times at the start of the season, I had my whole family, the team, my girlfriend, who is here too, the sponsors, the Federation, everyone, everyone in Brazil, the fans who supported me, “don’t be down Gabriel, keep pushing”. You can do it, you can win it.” And I think that’s what I learned the most. You have to be surrounded by good people who can help you achieve your dreams and I hope I can bring that to the team next year and develop it because we know that this is a team that is going through a new project right now. moment with Audi. So we'll have to develop a lot of things and I hope we can be a big – I don't think leader is the right word because I'm a beginner, but with Nico we hope we can do a really good job and achieve a lot of things with Audi in the future. »
