The Audi F1 Team missed out on points once again at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP; Gabriel Bortoleto finished P13, with his teammate Nico Hülkenberg in P11.
Bad race start at the 2026 Japanese GP cost Audi points
Both Audi drivers had poor race starts, causing them both to lose grid positions. The Brazilian fell four places on the opening tour.
“Yeah, the start was not great. We know it’s something we need to work as a team. Both me and Nico, we dropped a lot. And then after that, there was another few things, few issues that we had through the race that I couldn’t do much out there,” said Gabriel Bortoleto after the 2026 Japanese GP.
Gabriel Bortoleto had a strong qualifying as he placed P9 and was set for a points battle until that bad launch. His German teammate also had a shocker, dropping from P13 to P19.
Audi’s team principal Mattia Binotto admitted in a print media session that starts were a reason for the team’s poor performance.
During the 2026 F1 Japanese GP, the Brazilian and the German battled with each other several times. In the end, Nico Hülkenberg came out ahead.
In the print media pen, Bortoleto said that there were no team orders requesting both drivers to swap places: the German veteran simply more pace than the 21-year-old.
“Yeah, he didn’t swap, to be honest. He just overtook me. He had more speed. And then he managed to overtake me, and then I never managed to keep up,” clarified Bortoleto. “In the corners it was okay, but then in the straights I was just suffering a bit more today. Something that I don’t know what and why still, but it’s something that we all acknowledge inside the team. We knew the problem, and just we need to investigate now and try to fix it for the next race,” he explained further.
Improvements needed for Audi ahead of the next GP
There have been many discussions about the starting procedure in the current F1 season; not only ahead of the Japanese GP. Bortoleto thought that “the procedure is very similar to everyone“.
He commented that some teams do not struggle with the race starts as much as Audi does. He acknowledged that currently the car is performing badly regarding launches and that the team needs to improve that.
With a month-long break, the Audi F1 team has enough time to detect and potentially fix the problems in time for the Miami GP in May.
“I think there are teams that have developed the car, worked the car in a bit different way to have better starts.
“I don’t think all the teams thought it was going to be that difficult to start. We ended up that it’s terrible so far. We know it’s very difficult for us, and we need to improve on that.”
