Jonathan Wheatley has worked with a lot of driver pairings over his 35 years in F1, and believes Sauber\u2019s current pairing is the closest he\u2019s ever seen.<\/p>\n
Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto form one of the closest teammate pairings on the F1 grid over the past 35 years, believes their current team boss Jonathan Wheatley.<\/p>\n
Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto praised by Jonathan Wheatley<\/p>\n
Reigning Formula 2 Champion Gabriel Bortoleto earned a seat with Sauber for his rookie season this year, with the Brazilian driver paired with experienced veteran Nico Hulkenberg as the German driver left Haas to join the Swiss squad ahead of its takeover by Audi.<\/p>\n
Both will remain with the squad as it transforms into Audi at the end of this season, and both have had a peaceful, collaborative season in which Sauber\u2019s<\/a> C45 has been diligently upgraded to become a regular points-scorer and even a podium finisher as Hulkenberg claimed his first-ever top-three finish at Silverstone.<\/p>\n While the German driver\u2019s experience allowed him to start capitalising on the car\u2019s growing potential a little earlier than Bortoleto could, both are now bringing home strong results. Hulkenberg has scored 37 points to lie ninth in the Drivers\u2019 Championship, while Bortoleto occupies 17th with 14 points \u2013 his best result coming right before the summer break as his momentum builds.<\/p>\n For team boss Jonathan Wheatley, who is going through his first year in such a role after almost 20 years at Red Bull as a team manager and sporting director, the combination of youthful promise in Bortoleto and the patient wisdom of Hulkenberg has been a particularly harmonious combination.<\/p>\n Wheatley, whose career dates back 35 years, starting with Benetton in 1991, has worked with the likes of the Sebastian Vettel\/Mark Webber combination, as well as Max Verstappen\/Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso\/Giancarlo Fisichella, and Michael Schumacher\/Johnny Herbert.<\/p>\n But, in his eyes, the current driver pairing he has at Sauber trumps them all in terms of the ease with which they work together.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to say that it\u2019s the closest, most collaborative driver pairing, I think I can even remember in all my time in Formula 1,\u201d Wheatley told media, including PlanetF1.com, after the Hungarian Grand Prix, in which Bortoleto secured a career-best finish of sixth place.<\/p>\n \u201cGabriel has a fantastic work ethic. He has a capacity for taking on new information. He\u2019s proving every way to be the future star that we expected him to be, and Nico is part of that journey with him.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the other side of the engineering table, you\u2019ve got this extraordinary experience in Nico\u2019s proven talent. We\u2019re talking about Gabby a lot today, but Nico did a tremendous job. You just don\u2019t notice it because it didn\u2019t result in a points finish!<\/p>\n \u201cBut, as a team, we\u2019re very pleased with both of our drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n With Bortoleto now starting to capitalise on the potential of the much-improved Sauber as he builds his own experience, Wheatley said he suspects the Brazilian driver will only get more impressive as the season goes on.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s worth pointing out again that he hasn\u2019t done 10,000 kilometers of testing of previous cars. He hasn\u2019t done 10,000 kilometers in a Formula 1 car. It\u2019s his first season in Formula 1,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many circuits that he\u2019s not been to, and there\u2019s some coming up that he hasn\u2019t been to.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been able to deliver brilliantly over the last few races and circuits that he knows, and I think he\u2019s matured as a driver, and he\u2019s developed as a driver, and I think he\u2019s going to be able to adapt to these new circuits much quicker than he did in the first half of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n More on Sauber and Audi<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Nico Hulkenberg recounts \u2018surreal survival fight\u2019 to end legendary F1 podium drough<\/a>t<\/p>\n