Gabriel Bortoleto touches on “very emotional” aspect of his home fans regarding F1 frustration

Brazilian F1 driver Gabriel Bortoleto won the 2024 F2 championship and was signed by the Sauber F1 team for the 2025 season. However, the F1 rookie has struggled to score points in the backmarker team, which has led to frustration from his fans back at home. Bortoleto recently came out and detailed the “emotional” aspect, which has led to the fans' frustrations.

Gabriel Bortoleto quickly progressed through his junior Formula career as he won the F3 championship and the F2 championship in his debut seasons in the respective series, i.e., 2023 and 2024. The Brazilian was also a part of the McLaren Driver Development programme in 2023 and 2024 before he was signed by Sauber.

However, unlike the F2 and F3 series, which are spec series where all the cars are the same, F1 is an open Formula series where all the competitors make their cars based on a set of rules and regulations, leading to a variation in car performance.

Unfortunately, Sauber has been on the poor end of the car performance in 2025. While the team currently sits sixth in the constructors' championship on 41 points, it was mainly because of Nico Hulkenberg's podium finish at the rain-affected British GP. In reality, the Sauber is arguably amongst the three slowest cars on the grid.

Gabriel Bortoleto currently sits in P19 in the Driver's championship with just four points to his name. Fans in Brazil have come out and expressed their frustration over the Sauber driver's performance.

"Brazilian fans are very emotional people—that’s Brazil. That’s what I love about my country as well. I think those that understand the sport and understand the difference between the cars, and that it’s a sport where you can actually develop a car—it’s not that everyone has the same chassis like in junior series where you just play with the set-up and make your car fast—those fans understand my situation right now," said Bortoleto (via Austrian GP press conference)

However, Bortoleto explained that some fans don't understand that F1 is an open series with varying car performance.

“Maybe some people that don’t understand much about F1 and they look at Senna back in the 1980s, they think you can get any car and win a race in Monaco in the wet. And It’s not like this these days anymore. It’s not that easy," he added

Gabriel Bortoleto scored his first F1 points at the 2025 Austrian GP

Gabriel Bortoleto started the 2025 Austrian GP in P8 after an amazing qualifying session, beating the other rookies, including Kimi Antonelli. The Brazilian driver made the two-stop strategy work, battled Fernando Alonso in the final laps of the race, and crossed the chequered flag in P8, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg to score his first points of the season.

Speaking about it, Bortoleto said,

“I always knew I was capable of it. I’m not in Formula 1 for a random reason. It’s just good to be in the points finally – more for the team than for myself because they really deserve to have points and everything. For myself, I’m here because I want to win one day. I’m not going to be happy because I scored a few points, you know? But for sure it’s already an achievement,” said Bortoleto (via Formula 1's official website)

Fernando Alonso, who is a part of Gabriel Bortoleto’s management team, was the first to congratulate the youngster for scoring points in F1 and the great battle in the final laps.

Edited by Rupesh