Gabriel Bortoleto will carry the hopes of a nation during his debut F1 season, with the reigning F2 champion becoming the first Brazilian to compete in the sport full-time since Felipe Massa in 2017.

Born in Sao Paulo, Bortoleto started karting aged seven and was soon winning local championships – his businessman father Lincoln Oliveira, who is involved in Brazilian motor racing, providing valuable support.

Just four years later, Bortoleto was on his way to Europe, where he followed in the footsteps of hero Ayrton Senna by achieving further karting success in international championships and paving the way for a move to single-seaters.

Since then, Bortoleto has won races in almost every category he has contested, initially building his experience in Italian F4 and Formula Regional through 2021 and 2022, and doing enough to be signed by Fernando Alonso’s A14 management company.

With Alonso in his corner, Bortoleto moved up a gear, brilliantly capturing back-to-back F3 and F2 titles in 2023 and 2024 – the latter season including a remarkable rise from last to first during the Monza Feature Race.

It was a performance that got the paddock talking and saw him emerge as an outside contender for one of the then few vacancies on the 2025 F1 grid.

Bortoleto’s situation was complicated slightly by his driver development deal with McLaren, signed shortly after he won the F3 title, but given their locked down duo of race winners Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, team chiefs did not want to stand in the youngster’s way.

As such, whispers of a potential move to Kick Sauber – following a company-wide evaluation by new team boss Mattia Binotto – soon turned into concrete news, and Bortoleto was duly confirmed alongside the experienced Nico Hulkenberg.

Bortoleto hailed an “amazing feeling” when he made his official F1 test debut for Sauber at the 2024 post-season gathering in Abu Dhabi, with the 20-year-old now eager to turn his Formula 1 dreams into a reality…