The five days of F1’s 2026 Barcelona shakedown provided a crucial first glimpse into Gabriel Bortoleto’s integration with Audi. These days were defined by the complex integration of the new power unit. The session offered the Brazilian driver a tangible baseline to work from.
For Bortoleto, the experience was less about headline times and more about the methodical accumulation of data required to transition the team’s digital simulations into real-world track performance.
Bortoleto on recovering from a stalled start at the 2026 F1 Barcelona shakedown
Bortoleto’s introduction to the Audi challenger was far from smooth at the 2026 F1 Barcelona shakedown. The initial day yielded no track time in the afternoon. However, the team managed a significant turnaround during his final morning session.
“Yeah, it was positive, I would say,” he noted regarding the recovery. “We lost a few hours at the beginning of the day with a few issues we had, but then as soon as we fixed it, we had an amount of good laps, I would say, like we put 50 laps on board.”
Despite the early setbacks, the driver managed to log significant mileage before handing the car over to his teammate, Nico Hülkenberg. While he admitted it was “obviously, not as much as I would like,” it represented a critical foundation after the silence of day one.
“Already a start for me, because in the first day, obviously, I didn’t run anything. But yeah, very positive to get to understand a little bit better our car and put some mileage on our car and power units.”
The reality of a 2026 F1 shakedown
In the paddock, the mood remains one of realistic optimism. Audi is under no illusions about the scale of their task as a new manufacturer. Bortoleto emphasised that the purpose of the week in Barcelona was precisely to uncover these technical vulnerabilities.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, shakedown is literally just to put the car on track and test if everything is running,” he noted.
The team viewed the persistent glitches not as failures, but as necessary hurdles of a new project.
“Obviously, we expect all these issues, small issues that we had here and there, because that’s what the shakedown is for. So I’m happy,” Bortoleto added.
The consensus in the camp is that managed mileage in Spain is the prerequisite for performance in Bahrain:
“The team is, I would say, happy that we have managed to do some laps in the morning and hopefully this afternoon with Nico, he managed to put some mileage on the car and improve a few topics that are ongoing right now. And we’re going in the right direction.”
Correlation and the Bahrain transition
The process has now moved from the asphalt to the laboratory. For Bortoleto, the coming days are dedicated to ensuring that the physical sensations of the car match the team’s digital models.
“Oh, I need to go back to the factory now, you know, next week, going to the factory, doing a bit of correlation in the simulation, trying to understand what we need to improve in the car and in the simulator to make it more realistic. And then start working from there,” he detailed.
This bridge between the track and the factory is essential, especially as the team prepares for a radical shift in environment. The cold, damp conditions of Barcelona will be replaced by the abrasive surface and high temperatures of Sakhir. “Obviously, we have a lot of changes, you know, coming to Bahrain, new track, different weather as well. We are in a very cold place right now. So everything will change,” he remarked.
Prospective Outlook
Audi leaves Barcelona with a clear punch-list of “ongoing topics” to address ahead of the 2026 F1 campaign. The focus for the engineers is now on implementing changes derived from the shakedown data to ensure the car is more robust for the official pre-season tests.
Bortoleto remains focused on the evolution of the package as they move toward the first race: “And obviously, we hope that we improve a lot [on] our car for the next test and we start working from there.”
