Gabriel Bortoleto has shared an insight into the \u201cemotional\u201d reaction of the Audi team when the squad\u2019s 2026 car hit the track for the first time, with the Brazilian admitting that there were \u201ca lot of tears in the eyes\u201d \u2013 including his \u2013 during the shakedown.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the outfit\u2019s first year under the Audi<\/a> name \u2013 following their transition from the former Kick Sauber team \u2013 the R26 was unveiled as part of an immersive launch event<\/a> in Berlin on Tuesday, as Bortoleto<\/a> joined team mate Nico Hulkenberg<\/a>, Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley<\/a> and Head of Audi F1 project Mattia Binotto<\/a> to reveal the new challenger.<\/p>\n It marked the latest milestone in the team\u2019s journey, with the car having made its maiden appearance on track for a shakedown<\/a> at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on January 9, two days after the squad confirmed their first successful fire-up<\/a>.<\/p>\n When asked during the launch event to sum up his emotions about being one of Audi\u2019s lead drivers, Bortoleto reflected: \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing opportunity in my career. Obviously when I entered F1 I knew about the project and I was very involved in it.<\/p>\n \u201cBut finally to start it and be part of this \u2013 to be here today launching the car and head to the track in one week\u2019s time \u2013 it\u2019s going to be incredible. I\u2019m very proud of the team for everything they have done so far. You know, hard work to put all of this together that we are making and the history we are also creating.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of how it felt to test the R26 just a few days into the New Year, Bortoleto summarised: \u201cIt was great. It was great to feel a little bit the new regulation car, the engine, the power unit style that is going to be quite different from last year.<\/p>\n \u201cBut honestly I\u2019m looking forward to it and to testing it properly in a proper day \u2013 with proper days in Barcelona and Bahrain \u2013 test things, experience things and then extract all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n The 21-year-old admitted that there is much excitement in the team and at the squad\u2019s headquarters ahead of the new campaign, resulting in an emotional moment for many when the car hit the track for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mood is great, everyone is so excited about it,\u201d said Bortoleto. \u201cI feel like everyone has been working so, so hard that no one had time to stop and realise everything that has been built and everything we are doing.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we saw the car going out for the first time in the shakedown and everyone \u2013 you could see a lot of tears in the eyes because people were getting emotional about the project and what to expect of it. I was one of them if I\u2019m honest! It\u2019s just great.\u201d<\/p>\n With new technical regulations coming into effect in 2026, Bortoleto is expecting a challenge but also believes that the rules reset will become second nature in time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be more for sure in terms of we need to study a little bit more the new regulations and what to do on that,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut at some point it\u2019s going to get automatic as much as it was last year. I believe at the beginning everything will be new for everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t really know how to manage this or that, but everyone will get used to it at some point and it will be just another regulation change.\u201d<\/p>\n And when asked what would constitute a good year, the Audi driver responded: \u201cI don\u2019t want to put a result on it because I had the same question last year and I said exactly the same thing.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to see progress \u2013 progress with the team, I want to see us developing through the year, improving the car, improving ourselves as drivers as well. If we\u2019re able to do this I\u2019m sure the results will come as a consequence of this so I\u2019m happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabriel Bortoleto has shared an insight into the \u201cemotional\u201d reaction of the Audi team when the squad\u2019s 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-428517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428517","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=428517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}