Sauber’s Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto secured his first F1 points in the World Drivers’ Championship with an extraordinary P8 finish and was awarded Driver of the Day at the 2025 Austrian GP.
The Brazilian rookie crossed the line behind Fernando Alonso, whom he battled for P7, and was overjoyed by his position. He thanked his team and strategy for this personal victory.
“It’s great, it’s great to be the driver of the day, but also to give these points for the team is very important. You know, for everyone’s confidence,” he told media.
“Yeah, the blue flags didn’t help, you know, but that’s something that is very difficult to predict; it depends on everyone’s pace, especially when it’s so tight like this. I feel like we did everything that was in our hands, you know, we knew the one stop and the two stop was a very close race, it was clear on paper.
“The thing is, maybe, I don’t know, picking a bit earlier or not, but I mean. I think the team did an amazing job today.
“Every time, you know, the pace was starting to drop, they beat me, they put me in a better tyre and gave me other possibilities to fight for the points today. So, I feel like I don’t regret doing the two stop, definitely.”
Bortoleto added afterwards that his victory was dedicated to his race engineer, Camilo and that he “deserves these first points”, as he needed to stay home for his own personal reasons.
Fighting Alonso
Alonso and Bortoleto have a unique and dynamic racing relationship. Alonso manages Bortoleto through his driver management team, A14 Management. As well as being a mentor to the rookie.
During the Austrian Grand Prix final moments, the Spaniard and Brazilian had a tense fight to try and secure P7.
When Bortoleto was asked if it was fun to fight his mentor at the Austrian GP. He had nothing but praise for the two-time world champion and said:
“It was fun, yeah, especially because he raced very hard and I had a lot of fun. Luckily, we didn’t crash, because then I got no way to get home probably.
“He has a lot of experience, you know, he knew how to play perfectly with the blue flags and everything. He almost overtook Norris in the back straight, but he knew exactly how to do it without doing it wrong, just perfect.”
Bortoleto continued about what he learnt from racing Alonso from behind, and said:
“I mean, yeah, for sure, but that’s a study you should have when you’re at home relaxing and you go on board of the guy and you check every single line, the way he looks at the mirror, the way he brakes to get the DRS in the right position.
“That’s not something you can, you know, you’re focused on trying to overtake, and I feel like I’ve been a young boy trying to get his first points. The guy was just like relaxed there trying to just defend, and he knew exactly what he was doing.
“He was under control of the race there and he had worse tyres and he still managed to keep me behind for two laps. So that was a very good help from him.”
What Fernando had to say
Fernando Alonso was the first to congratulate Bortoleto on his maiden points victory in F1, but when the Driver of the Day was asked what the two-time world champion said to him, Bortoleto was honest and said:
“He was like, I’m very happy for you, you know, for your first points and everything, you did a great job.
“Yeah, it was a great weekend and a very fun one, also fighting, you know, with Fernando at the end of the race was amazing.
“Yeah, I just had a lot of fun, and finally it’s good to be in a position that you have a good car and you have a good pace to be fighting for points.”
The Brazilian continued further about battling Fernando Alonso and said:
“He did everything possible. He was fighting for the World Championship, it looks like. No, it was nice. It was nice. But he has so much experience, you know, he knew exactly how to place the car and get the DRS.
“I thought he was crazy because he tried to overtake Norris back to keep me behind. I was like, what is he doing here? If he shunts Norris, it’s not going to look so good. But, yeah, he did it perfectly. Even with very bad tyres, he managed to stay like one millimetre from his car and not crash and still keep me behind.
“He deserves this position, honestly.”
Bortoleto cheekily afterwards added: “Yes. He needs to pay for dinner. Definitely. It was a good race.”
