The Brazilian Formula 2 Champion made his debut with the Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber.
The beginning of a dream come true! With this phrase, Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto, 20 years old, summarized his participation in his first F1 practice session as an official driver in the category.

Gabriel, who had secured the Formula 2 World Championship title just 48 hours earlier, barely had time to celebrate. On Monday, December 9th, the driver spent the day at the team’s office at the Yas Marina Circuit in the United Arab Emirates, where he was introduced to the technical team. During this time, he received instructions regarding his work schedule for the following day, learned more about the steering wheel’s functionality, and checked out his new personal equipment, including race suits, gloves, and even communication headsets.

Calm and composed, the newly crowned F2 World Champion arrived at the circuit early on Tuesday morning (10th) to start his workday. The track was open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. without session divisions, allowing each team to organize its activities within that timeframe.
Following the guidance of his engineering team, Bortoleto had his first experience in a collective F1 test session. On the track, alongside 19 other cars, he successfully executed every task assigned to him, whether it involved aerodynamic tests, component evaluations, or adapting to the car and its new systems. Everything was meticulously planned and carried out.
Among the range of tires provided by Pirelli for the test—C3, C4, and C5—Gabriel tested all three compounds, gaining valuable insight into the degradation of each type. Following the team’s instructions, the C5 tires, marked in red and the softest compound available that day, were only used in the final 30 minutes of the session.

Eager to fully unleash the potential of his F1 car, Bortoleto faced unfortunate circumstances that prevented him from achieving his best performance. During his first flying lap attempt on the soft tires, a spun car on the track caused a red flag interruption. On his second attempt, a car component malfunctioned, limiting the performance of the #98 car.

Despite these setbacks, the Brazilian driver completed a total of 130 laps on the Yas Marina circuit, covering a testing schedule of 686.53 kilometers. His fastest lap was clocked at 1m24.738s.

“Today will forever be remembered as my first official day as an F1 driver—it was an incredible feeling. I believe we had a very productive day, during which I focused entirely on adapting to the car. I tried to learn as much as possible from the mechanics, engineers, and everyone on the team. I’m confident it was a fruitful first day in this new workplace. F1 cars are much faster and, naturally, very different from the F2 car I got used to driving this year. I am extremely proud to be part of this new team and excited to see what story we can write together in the upcoming season,” commented the 20-year-old.

Pictures: Luca Bassani | PR

Press office of Gabriel Bortoleto
Responsible journalist: Flávio Quick