{"id":378582,"date":"2025-12-29T17:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T17:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378582\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T17:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T17:00:09","slug":"gabriel-bortoleto-tells-friends-to-slap-him-if-f1-fame-changes-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378582\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel Bortoleto tells friends to &#8220;slap&#8221; him if F1 fame changes him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/gabriel-bortoleto\/950450\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> is adamant not to let the fame of Formula 1 get to his head, joking that he has told his friends to slap him if he ever changes.<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old driver joined Sauber for his rookie season in 2025 after clinching the 2024 Formula 2 championship. He impressed in his first year in the series alongside his experienced team-mate, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/nico-hulkenberg\/9327\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Nico Hulkenberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bortoleto is keen not to let the fame that comes with the championship go to his head, though. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t change at all,&#8221; the Brazilian driver told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/article\/exclusive-ive-achieved-a-lot-this-year-bortoleto-on-his-rookie-season.3Tn5E19ZOhmW5Gll9ITgDb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">F1.com<\/a>. &#8220;I think I&#8217;ve learned different things to manage my time better. But as my personality and everything, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve changed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I enjoy making people smile and people happy around me. I think that&#8217;s very important. I try to be like that. It&#8217;s just who I am.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think in F1, it&#8217;s very easy because you become a bit famous and then people start to change a bit and not really be the same person anymore. I don&#8217;t feel a reason so far to change.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I always joke with my friends and people even in the team. I said, if one day I change, you slap me in the face. So far, I have not had any slaps!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767027609_75_gabriel-bortoleto-sauber.jpg\" alt=\"Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Guido De Bortoli \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Sauber will transition to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/audi\/49022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Audi<\/a> F1 team from 2026, and Bortoleto is excited to be part of the new project. Both he and Hulkenberg will continue with the Jonathan Wheatley-led team as it rebrands.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m excited to start this new project,&#8221; he added. &#8220;To be fully focused on the project for next year, that will be incredible and to be able to lead that and focus for next year will be incredible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 F1 season will kick off with the Australian Grand Prix on 6-8 March.<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabriel Bortoleto is adamant not to let the fame of Formula 1 get to his head, joking that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,40856,63,195711,79010,817,813,816,7695,203938,924,85,1511],"class_list":["post-378582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-audi","tag-australia","tag-barcelona-catalunya-pre-season-testing","tag-circuit-de-barcelona-catalunya","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gabriel-bortoleto","tag-gabriel-bortoleto-tells-friends-to-slap-him-if-f1-fame-changes-him","tag-sauber","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}