Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto has conceded the German manufacturer is enduring \u201cterrible\u201d starts, which is denting its progress and ability to bag strong results.<\/p>\n
The German manufacturer scored a point at the season-opening round in Australia to kickstart a dream debut.<\/p>\n
Bortoleto sought to follow up his point-scoring result with another top 10 finish last time out in Japan as he lined up in ninth place.<\/p>\n
However, the Brazilian found himself slipping down the order on the opening lap along with team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, with both going on to finish outside the top 10.<\/p>\n
Bortoleto pointed to the team’s poor starts as a clear weakness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe procedure is very similar for everyone,\u201d Bortoleto told media including RacingNews365.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is teams that have developed the car, worked the car in a bit of a different way to have better starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think either Audi teams thought it was going to be that difficult to start.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt ended up that it’s terrible, so far. We know it’s very difficult for us, and we need to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Audi is not the only manufacturer that has struggled to get starts right with the new-for-2026 power units.<\/p>\n
However, Bortoleto has admitted that any fixes will take time to implement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can improve a bit, but not in the short term to get to the Ferraris. I think it’s very difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso with the Mercedes, I think we are still going to struggle a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto has conceded the German manufacturer is enduring \u201cterrible\u201d starts, which is denting its progress…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-583576","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-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1-calendar","12":"tag-f1-live","13":"tag-f1-results","14":"tag-f1-standings","15":"tag-ferrari","16":"tag-formula-1","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-max-verstappen","19":"tag-motor","20":"tag-motor-sports","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-motosport","23":"tag-motosports","24":"tag-racing","25":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583576","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=583576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}