Gabriel Bortoleto says he was compromised on Lap 1 st the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP, as Audi faced certain turbo issues all-through the weekend.
While his teammate Nico Hülkenberg had a freak reason to retire from 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP, Audi’s Bortoleto was compromised from Lap 1 itself which undone a decent qualifying result. A bad start dropped him towards the back of field, in the clutches of Cadillac and Aston Martin.
He managed to regain some places, but it was not enough. He found himself in a tussle with Haas’ Esteban Ocon. A wide moment on the kerb/gravel damaged his floor, which further limited his pace in the road to recovery. He lost so much time that even after late retirements, he couldn’t gain.
Bortoleto feels F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP compromised at start
He was 11th in the end in yet another race where Audi couldn’t score. “I think our race was very compromised in Lap 1,” said Bortoleto in the print media pen after 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP. “I think we had a problem in the start, that is still to be clarified.
“But from my understanding shortly was a procedure, not a procedure went right, but something went wrong on the loading of the turbo or whatever. But again, I still need to head to the engineers and understand exactly what happened, but we lost six positions in Lap 1.
Moment with Ocon
“When you go back to P17, I tried to make a few positions back by the outside of Turn 12, got a little bit squeezed out by Ocon, but racing things, we are pushing each other and then pushed me a tiny bit wide, I had two wheels on the gravel, picked up quite a lot of damage on the left-hand side of the floor.
“Then I had to do my race with that damage, plus it started from the back from that moment, it was quite frustrating. And then we managed to gain these positions, but at the same time, it was people that were retiring, I overtook three cars and that’s it, but still out of the points,” summed up Bortoleto.
Different kind of start issue in Barcelona as per Bortoleto
When asked what could have been the issue and if it was related to the troubles Audi has faced with starts since the start of F1 2026, Bortoleto was 50-50 on it. The Brazilian noted that they have improved on their starts, but in Barcelona, they had addition issue on the turbo side.
On the formation lap, he felt good with it, but in the actual race start, it hampered him again. “Yes, I think we have been improving our procedure quite a lot, I think I’ve been quite happy with the steps we have done,” continued Bortoleto.
“This weekend specifically we have suffered with this problem, I thought it was fixed to be honest, I think at least laps to the grid everything was alright, but then we arrived there and that happened.” Despite the low-key results, the Brazilian was happy with the progress made by Audi.
Good that Audi could perform on two different type of tracks
On two different tracks in Monaco and Barcelona, the German F1 outfit showed competitiveness, even though they lacked optimum power from its power unit. That deficit will play a role in Austria, where there are long straights. But he hopes to regain the lost time at high speeds.
“Yes, very much, it’s great to see our car in Monaco here very quick, it’s two completely different tracks and you see our performance, it’s very encouraging and I’m looking forward to the next ones,” said Bortoleto. “Obviously Austria, it’s a lot of straight lines, we know we have a lack of power.
“But at the same time there is full of high speeds where we can try to regain some lap time there.” He was coy about answering question on updates, but he feels Austria could be good for them.
“This [about update plans] you need to ask Mattia or Allan, I’m not sure I’m allowed to say that,” he said. “[Austria] could be good, yes, could be a good race.”
