“Who’s chatting with me?”: Gabriel Bortoleto stunned after learning Nico Hulkenberg’s social media account reality 

Kick Sauber F1 driver Gabriel Bortoleto was left stunned after his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, revealed that he was not on the social media platform TikTok. The Brazilian driver has impressed with his progression in the sport in his rookie campaign alongside his experienced German teammate.

While the 38-year-old started the season strongly and scored the Hinwil-based outfit's first points in Melbourne and later claimed his first podium in Silverstone, the 20-year-old has caught up and surpassed the German in terms of results and performances ever since the past couple of races.

Despite their close and competitive pairing, the duo have shared a friendly and relaxed dynamic off the track and are often seen spending time with each other. In a video floating on social media, Gabriel Bortoleto could be seen explaining to Nico Hulkenberg about the trend 'Aura Farming', and asked:

"You never seen the kid on TikTok?"

To which the ex-Haas driver replied:

"I'm not on TikTok,"

The answer stunned the Brazilian driver as he hilariously said:

“No? But I follow you, we chat sometimes. Who am I chatting with?”

The shocked response left everyone in splits as Hulkenberg's TikTok account, which boasts over 1.7m followers, was handled with his social media manager.

Nico Hulkenberg sings praises of his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto's performances

Kick Sauber F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg was full of praise for his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto's performances and stated that the latter was operating like a "machine," given the on-track consistency and pace over the last couple of races.

Speaking with RacingNews365, the German veteran reflected on the F1 rookie and said:

"He's just doing a really good job. He's a machine. He produces laps like a printer that never runs out of ink. It's pretty astonishing. You've all come to see who he is and how he drives. He hardly makes any mistakes, given that he is a rookie. He produces the laps very comfortably, so he's just doing a really good job. He's strong."

Gabriel Bortoleto also returned the compliment and added:

"I always used to watch him and be like, 'This guy is so quick. And then when I knew I was going to be his team-mate, to be honest, I was like, 'Oh, that's going to be tough. "This year is going to be pushy for me. I knew I would need to raise my level and everything. Honestly, it's very close between us. If you look at the data, it's so close. We are extracting a lot from the car."

Despite Gabriel Bortoleto's resurgent results in the past couple of months, Nico Huleknberg has scored more points than the latter and sits in P10 with 37 points to his name compared to the Brazilian's 18 thus far.

Edited by Devang Chauhan