Gabriel Bortoleto endured a difficult 2026 F1 Chinese GP weekend, finishing outside the top ten in every session before technical issues prevented him from starting Sunday’s race.
The Audi driver encountered the issue on his way to the grid from the pit lane, forcing him to return to the garage. However, the team was quick to withdraw the car from the race as they weren’t able to identify and fix the problem in time.
Bortoleto on his F1 Chinese GP DNS
Speaking after the 2026 F1 Chinese GP in the print media pen, Gabriel Bortoleto briefly explained the frustrating issue that left him disappointed at missing out on a race where points could have been possible.
“Yes, but what I say is technical issue. So, yeah, we just need to put things together again and go for Japan. There is not really much I say about today. It was just a shame because in a race like this you can easily score points if you just keep your car on track.
“But at the same time problems are for everyone, right? We have seen how many DNFs and people not starting the race. So yeah, a shame.”
When further asked whether the issue was related to the DNS that his teammate Nico Hülkenberg suffered at the 2026 F1 Australian GP, Bortoleto said: “To be honest with you, they need to investigate. I have an idea what’s the problem, but they need to investigate further exactly what happened because we cannot open up the car in the middle of the race. Nico is still racing, the pit crew is there. So, there’s still a lot of things to understand.”
He added: “But I think it’s just a matter of understanding and then trying to understand a solution for these problems because not starting the race is something sad because I had to watch the whole race with the radio of Nico and listen and learn a lot of things. That was good actually from this point of view, but it’s just a shame that I couldn’t race.”
An unpredictable start to the 2026 F1 season
After just two rounds of the 2026 Formula 1 season, teams and drivers have struggled adapting to the new regulations, with reliability issues dominating early in the year and causing multiple DNFs and DNSs.
For Audi, despite scoring their maiden F1 points in Australia with Bortoleto’s P9 finish, the team has faced a pattern of reliability issues, with Bortoleto’s 2026 F1 Chinese GP issue marking their third problem of the season.
The first issue arrived in Melbourne with Hülkenberg’s DNS, while the second came in the Shanghai Sprint Race as Hülkenberg retired after being told to stop the car.
Commenting on this, Bortoleto explained: “I mean, everyone is having reliability issues. It’s not only us. It’s a shame; it’s not that we have been able to run clean so far, but it’s also the first one I have since the season started. So, things that will be fixed, you know. These problems happen, especially at the beginning of regulation. So, I’m not concerned about it at all.”
Struggling to find pace
Beyond the reliability issues, the Brazilian driver also noted his difficulty of finding pace at the 2026 F1 Chinese GP. Bortoleto finished FP1 in P12 before going on to take Sprint qualifying P14, a Sprint P14, and a race qualifying P16. A spin on his final run in Q2 did not help his cause either.
Meanwhile, Hülkenberg proved to be quicker across all sessions. When asked about this struggle and what he believes is the cause of it, Gabriel Bortoleto said, “Yeah, I think the midfield is very tight, right? So, when we say struggling, one-tenth off, it’s struggling because it feels like you can change a lot of positions.
“Yeah, the whole weekend, I think Nico has had a little bit of an edge. He has always been one-tenth, one-tenth and a half faster than me,” he said.
“There are a couple of things that I have not been comfortable at all this weekend. Things that are a bit in qualifying that, to be honest with you, were out of my control completely. And things that were under my control in qualifying.
“Because I could have done a better job if I just finished my last lap. It wouldn’t probably put me in Q3, but it would have put me in P12 or P11 maybe.
“But anyway, it’s gone. I wouldn’t even start the race. So, we just move on. We go for Japan and we try our best.”
