{"id":883972,"date":"2026-09-05T06:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/883972\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T06:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:34:21","slug":"gabriel-bortoleto-on-mental-strength-family-sacrifice-and-once-in-a-lifetime-audi-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/883972\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel Bortoleto on Mental Strength, Family Sacrifice, and ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Audi Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tThe biggest car news and reviews, no BS<\/p>\n

Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday.<\/p>\n

Ask the seasoned veterans and team headhunters up and down the Formula 1<\/a> paddock, and there\u2019s only one name they\u2019ll whisper when discussing rising talent and untapped potential: \u201cGabi.\u201d As someone with decades of experience in various F1 teams put it to me, \u201che\u2019s got the same level of talent as Max and Kimi, but maybe an even stronger work ethic.\u201d Those are fighting words, but after interacting with the young Brazilian several times earlier this season, they\u2019re the right words to describe Audi F1 driver Gabriel Bortoleto.<\/p>\n

Bortoleto\u2019s story is well known by now: a young man who was given the chance to race karts after other members of his family found success in motorsport. His father, Lincoln, enjoyed great popularity in the Stock Car Pro Series, a crowd-favorite championship in Brazil; Lincoln now serves as its CEO. His brother, Enzo, competed in karts all the way up to F4 and British Formula 3. To say that fuel runs through that family\u2019s veins is an understatement.<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

\"2026
\nAndy Hone, Sam Bagnalli via Audi F1 Team<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also known that Enzo made an enormous sacrifice\u2014the sacrifice\u2014to make sure his brother could keep racing. Despite having the talent and a well-defined trajectory to reach the upper echelons of open-wheel racing, the older of the two siblings hung up his helmet so the younger could continue. It\u2019s also worth mentioning that even with all the resources the well-off and well-positioned family could muster, the journey to the top is so intense and expensive that both parents and siblings understood there was only enough to catapult one Bortoleto to F1. All the bets were on Gabriel.<\/p>\n

This loving dedication and unwavering support from Enzo and the entire family fuel the young Audi driver to this day and will continue to do so through his career. It\u2019s what the family has focused on for most of his life, but most importantly, it\u2019s what he has worked so hard for since he was a young child. But let\u2019s face it, at 21, he is still a child\u2014a fact I\u2019m crudely aware of given that my own son is just a year and change younger than him.<\/p>\n

Aware of his backstory when I sat down with Bortoleto for a chat earlier this summer, I explored various questions that dug deeper and hopefully exposed his character: how passionate, hungry, and thankful he is about where he\u2019s come from, where he\u2019s at, and where he is going in his wild and turbulent career as an F1 driver. I think you\u2019ll agree that he played ball. Obrigado, Gabi.<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

\"2026
\nAndy Hone, Steven Tee via Audi F1 Team<\/p>\n

Jerry Perez: When you first jumped in a kart at around six years old, who did you pretend to be when behind the wheel?<\/p>\n

Gabriel Bortoleto: No, not really, no one. I just wanted to be myself. I was so young, you know; you don\u2019t pretend to be anyone when you\u2019re that age. You just want to have fun and enjoy driving. Ayrton [Senna] was my idol, and it was always very clear that I wanted to be like him, but I didn\u2019t pretend to be him.<\/p>\n

What I meant is that many times when you play f\u00fatbol or basketball or whatever sport you\u2019re into as a kid, you role-play and pretend to be one of the big stars of the moment.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s actually a good point because in f\u00fatbol, I used to do that. When I kicked the ball around, I wanted to be Neymar, or Messi, or Ronaldinho, but not in karting. In karting I always wanted just to be myself\u2014I wanted to drive.<\/p>\n

During your early karting years, who did you look up to at that point in F1?<\/p>\n

Felipe Massa; he was a great Brazilian driver. However, I was always a big, big fan of Ayrton. I really liked the way Ayrton drove; I liked that he had crazy and bright helmets, and when you are a kid, when you are six years old, that\u2019s so nice. He was very cool.<\/p>\n

\"JEREZ<\/p>\n

\"Gabriel
\nJoe Portlock, NurPhoto via Getty<\/p>\n

Did you switch favorite F1 drivers as you grew up?<\/p>\n

The truth is, as soon as Max [Verstappen] entered F1, I was a fan of him. I think I really liked the way he was driving, the way he was young and delivering such a strong performance from the beginning.<\/p>\n

How was that transition from karting to F4\u2014what was the most difficult part of jumping from a kart to a formula car?<\/p>\n

[I had] to adapt to a completely different way of driving. Karting is a great school, but most of the time you don\u2019t have gear shifts in karting and stuff like this, and then you go to F4, and it\u2019s a completely different car. It feels like less grip than in karting, actually, and it\u2019s really quite a tough car to drive because it\u2019s very different from before\u2014and also from what you\u2019re going to drive in the future. But yeah, it was not difficult; it was just a different way of adapting.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to hear about those moments between championships, between teams, those dreaded off-seasons when there\u2019s always a risk that that next seat may not come, that next drive may never arrive. Is there a specific one that stands out?<\/p>\n

I think it was the off-season going into 2021: we chose a team that wasn\u2019t very good, the owner had a few problems, and the team wasn\u2019t doing well. Then we had to change teams at the last second; there were not really many options. I ended up on a good team after all, but in the sense that we were okay\u2014not a top-3 team\u2014though we did get a few podiums that season and a few points. It [ended up being] a great season for me.<\/p>\n

\"BAHRAIN,<\/p>\n

\"IMOLA,
\nJames Sutton, Ryan Pierse via Getty<\/p>\n

There had to be a time when you maybe thought your career had come to an end and said, \u201cMaybe this is where I don\u2019t reach the next step?\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think there was ever this moment. I must be honest, I\u2019m a big believer, you know. I\u2019m also realistic, but I was always a big believer, so for me, there was never this moment. I think the only moment that probably came close was after F3, going into F2. Everything was going alright; I was leading the championship, but I didn\u2019t have a spot in F1 yet, so I didn\u2019t know what was happening to my career after that. I didn\u2019t know what series I was going to. I wanted to be in F1, and I didn\u2019t even know if I would keep racing [in general] if I didn\u2019t make it there. So yeah, it was just a moment when I didn\u2019t know what was next, what the next step was, and that was interesting for me because it was the first time that happened in my life. I ended up getting the F1 seat, and happy days\u2014we are here living a big dream.<\/p>\n

You have gone through this journey at a very young age\u2014I mean, you\u2019re still very young! Do you think this prepares you early on for the harsh reality of F1?<\/p>\n

I think so because it makes you stronger, you know? There is no perfect life in the sense that you don\u2019t go through good moments and [more] good moments. This has never existed with any driver. So I think this is important for shaping you as a person and for when you actually deal with very tough moments in F1, because they are going to happen. You need to be able to go through them with friends, [have] mental strength, and just be strong and leave them behind, you know? You need to understand what you need to do better to be a better person and a driver. And I think I learned this from a young age.<\/p>\n

\"2026Andy Hone via Audi F1 Team <\/p>\n

You just touched on something I had written down in my notes: your mental strength. How do you become mentally strong, especially as a teenager?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a secret question (laughs). I don\u2019t know, I really don\u2019t know. You just live through moments, you know, you live through things, and you prepare. I think it\u2019s who you are, the ambitions you have, how much you are willing to sacrifice in life to achieve your dreams and your goals. If you are willing to sacrifice everything in life to be a world champion one day, nothing is going to stop you, and your mental strength is always going to be the strongest ever, because nothing is going to stop you. If you are not very passionate about it, or you are passionate but not enough to get through the bad moments, then maybe you don\u2019t deserve to achieve greatness at all. That\u2019s my view of it.<\/p>\n

How important has your family been through these moments\u2014your parents, your brother, everyone?<\/p>\n

Everything\u2014they\u2019re everything to me. They have supported me through every single second of my career and never let me down. They made sure that I kept my ambitions, goals, and dreams alive and never gave up on them. And that made me a better driver and a better, stronger person as well.<\/p>\n

Father-son relationships can be complicated. I recently spoke with Mick Schumacher, and he explained that Michael never pushed or forced him to race and was very sort of hands-off. Then there\u2019s Max, who has been very outspoken about how tough Jos was with him as a kid. What was yours like?<\/p>\n

My father was always supportive, but never aggressive in any sense. He was always clear about the sacrifice that my family was making to help me race. It was very clear since I was 10 or 11 years old that [they were like], \u201cOkay, our lives completely shifted because of you [racing].\u201d It was a pressure that was put on me, but in a positive way. My dad never put any negative pressure on me, but made it clear to me that \u201cwe\u2019re all in on you,\u201d he and his company. He\u2019s a successful guy, but, like, all the work my brother sacrificed to stop racing because of me. My dad always wanted to see me work hard. If I was lazy, he would come and give me shit for it, you know? He would say things to my face, but I never gave him many opportunities to do that, if I\u2019m being very honest with you. I always had it very clear what I had to do and the hard work I had to put in. I think the only time he gave me shit was at the beginning of my career, when I didn\u2019t really like simulators because I was not the best at them. \u2029He said, \u201cYou are too lazy, and you\u2019re not good enough in the sim; that\u2019s why you don\u2019t like it. You say you don\u2019t like it because you\u2019re not good at it. But if you practice, get good at it, and get strong at it, I\u2019m sure you will like it, so don\u2019t be lazy and get your head up and work.\u201d So I started doing that, and I became a very good sim driver and very competitive\u2014and then I started liking it (laughs). He was right.<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

\"2026
\nRudy Carezzevoli, Simon Galloway via Getty<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been told you spend a lot of time in the simulator now, so clearly it worked, whatever he said.<\/p>\n

It did, yeah. Big hero.<\/p>\n

Lastly, this role with Audi. I would probably call it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start with what\u2019s essentially a new team. How do you take the most advantage of what you have right now?<\/p>\n

The best thing I can do is understand the brand I\u2019m representing and do my best for it. There are a lot of people working hard to put us at the top in F1; they want [to achieve here] everything they have achieved outside of F1. It\u2019s a big responsibility, and I will just give it my all. I will sacrifice everything to bring this team to the top and win with them.<\/p>\n

Email the author at jerry@thedrive.com<\/p>\n

As deputy editor, Jerry draws on a decade of industry experience and a lifelong passion for motorsports to guide The Drive\u2019s short- and long-term coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-883972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}