READ MORE: Who is Gabriel Bortoleto? Everything you need to know about Kick Sauber’s new recruit
This year, he’ll make his Formula 1 racing debut with Kick Sauber – and thus has spent much of his 2025 in Switzerland at the team’s headquarters in Hinwil, just outside Zurich, getting to know his new colleagues.
“It’s been very intense preparation work here at Sauber, coming here two or three times a week, focused doing a lot of simulator work, being with the engineers, understanding how they speak between each other, how they want me to speak with them, how I want them to speak with me,” he told F1.com.
“I want to be very close to them and create a very good relationship before the season starts. It’s something I’ve always done, especially in the last two years with my teams in F2 and F3, so when we started the season in the first round, it looks like we have been together already for years.”
That work ethic was one of the traits that is believed to have really impressed Sauber chief Mattia Binotto – though he’s not the Brazilian’s only admirer. Double world champion Fernando Alonso’s management firm A14 snapped up Bortoleto at a point when his career was hanging in the balance.
