Audi took part in the opening day of testing at the 2026 F1 Barcelona shakedown held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Unfortunately, after an issue with Gabriel Bortoleto’s car, their session ended prematurely, which restricted their running time. The driver shared that his first experience driving the new Audi car was both informative and challenging.
A premature end for Bortoleto on day one of the F1 Barcelona shakedown
In the opening hours of the F1 Barcelona shakedown, Bortoleto noted a productive Monday morning, as the team completed key tests in the first half of the session.
“I would say a short day as well at the same time. We were doing a pretty decent job in the morning, putting some laps on board, testing the right things going in the right direction,” the Brazilian driver reflected.
“But as we all expect, this is a shakedown, and anything can happen, and we expect to find issues here and there in the car and we found a couple of problems that unfortunately put us out of the day basically from the morning already,y so I didn’t run really much today,” he said.
He added that while the issues limited his track time, the team anticipated these sorts of teething problems with a brand-new car and engine.
“It was expected these types of things, we are finding everything now to not hopefully find it in the next tests or even in the first race of the year.
“Overall, I would say when we were running positive good to have a feel of the new car, the new regulations, power unit, and everything so hopefully on the next day I’m driving I can get a few more laps on board.”
Why the driver’s session ended prematurely
The session was disrupted when Bortoleto stopped on track, triggering a red flag. He explained that the decision to halt was purely precautionary. After doing 27 laps in the morning, he completed none in the afternoon.
“Regarding the stoppage on track today, it was a precaution thing as well, and we decided to not run until we fully understand, and then to put the car back on track and have a clear run,” he shared.
Even with limited laps, Bortoleto was able to gather valuable information about the car and the team’s first attempt at building its own power unit.
“I think there were a lot of learnings from the laps I completed, to understand a little bit the power unit, the car, give feedback to the team where we need to improve because there are a lot of things we have to do better.”
New beginnings for the Brazilian with Audi F1
Bortoleto couldn’t help but feel the excitement of being part of a completely new project with Audi.
“We are a new team as well, building for the first time our own power unit, so there are a lot of places we need to do a step here and there, but I’m very excited for that. It’s been incredible being part of this new journey for me.”
When asked how the new car feels compared to last year’s machinery, the driver acknowledged that it is a very different experience — the kind he struggled to put into words.
“I didn’t really drive a similar car in the past. I would say the Formula 2 car is much slower than the old regulations of Formula 1 and I feel these ones are going to be slower as well.”
Perhaps what got him the most excited about the new regulations was explaining the differences brought by the hybrid power unit and electric deployment — a change that made him very keen.
“It’s very cool to have the power unit be 50% electric. Now you go out of the corner and have so much speed being deployed, and the engine, you can see how strong it is, and these things are different, and you need to get used to it and adapt your way of driving the car as well.”
Bortoleto on the minor issues the team faced
Reflecting on whether the early technical issues could set the team back, Bortoleto remained confident, framing the problems as expected issues rather than serious setbacks.
“It’s small things that we even expected to have it already, you know. Unfortunately, it came a bit early, and we couldn’t put everything in place to continue, but we’re gonna analyse data, we’re gonna understand how to not have these mistakes again or these issues we had in the car, and try to have smooth days and a lot of laps because that’s what we need,” he explained.
Focusing on the next few days of testing, the driver wrapped by sharing: “First, we need to put laps, but I feel like we need to keep doing what we’re doing.”
