Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto has opened up about his strategy, the grid penalty’s impact on his race, Pirelli’s 25-lap tyre limit, and his near-collision with Lance Stroll following his thirteenth-place finish at the F1 Qatar GP on Sunday.
After making it through to Q2 at the Lusail International Circuit, Bortoleto clipped the gravel on his final run and only managed to clock the fourteenth-fastest time in qualifying.
Lining up in P19 due to his grid penalty, the 21-year-old had a strong start on the yellow-walled tyres and battled for positions in the early stages of the race. He then pitted under the Safety Car on Lap 7 along with fifteen other drivers and switched to a second set of fresh mediums.
With overtaking being rather challenging without a considerable speed advantage in Qatar, Bortoleto found himself stuck behind Lewis Hamilton for the majority of the race.
The Brazilian dived into the pits once more on Lap 32 and swapped his mediums for a set of fresh soft tyres. However, he couldn’t close the gap to the Ferrari ahead of him and ultimately crossed the line in P13.
Early SC made the race a lot more straightforward
Speaking in the print media pen after the F1 race, Gabriel Bortoleto reflected on Sauber bolting on the softest compound for his final stint at the Qatar GP and whether this strategy was a gamble on their part.
Emphasising how he couldn’t get past Hamilton and that the conventional strategy wasn’t yielding results anyway, Bortoleto defended the Hinwil-based team’s call to switch to the soft tyres. Additionally, he remarked that the early Safety Car had significantly diminished the element of surprise and strategic variability, with every team, barring McLaren, pitting at the same time.
“I think it’s not a gamble when you are in that position, to be honest. You just try something and that’s it. Doing the same as everyone else, it wouldn’t make so much sense, just because we would get stuck anyway, like we still did with the softs.
“We all knew that the race was going to be a bit like that in this sense. Everyone has more or less the same strategy. Especially when there is a Safety Car earlier in the race and everyone pits, then everyone will pit again in the same lap after and that’s it. That was the race.”
Grid penalty compromising Bortoleto’s race from the get-go
In terms of how frustrating it was knowing that everyone was going to pit on the same lap in Sunday’s Qatar GP and that they had no wild card to play when it came to strategy, Gabriel Bortoleto depicted his race as tedious instead.
“Nothing. I was just chilling there, doing my race, learning, doing different things, trying different things. It was a bit of a boring race. I think that’s the word.”
Furthermore, the Sauber rookie lamented the five-place grid drop he received for Qatar, suggesting that a top-ten finish was on the cards otherwise. Nonetheless, he took accountability once again for the mistake that had resulted in a race-ending collision with Stroll in Las Vegas.
“I wish it was a bit different. I feel very disappointed that we had to pay the penalty in this race, because we have seen guys starting in the position I was supposed to start before the penalty. They managed to score one or two points. So yeah, shame.
“But when you make mistakes, you need to pay for them, and that’s fair.”
Bortoleto’s stance on Pirelli tyre mandate
Given that several tyres, particularly the left front, had reached the maximum wear level last year, Pirelli limited each tyre set to a maximum of 25 laps at the 2025 Qatar GP.
With regard to whether F1’s tyre supplier should’ve extended the compulsory 25-lap limit, Gabriel Bortoleto stated that such mandates are not issued at the drivers’ discretion. While he admitted that a standard race with the teams deciding their own fates is preferable, the 21-year-old also acknowledged how Pirelli had enforced the directive to ensure their safety.
“It’s not up to me to say that, because these are safety reasons, I imagine. They don’t make this to make the race fun or less fun. I believe they make this for safety reasons with the tyres.
“Obviously, I think every driver would prefer to not have this rule and just a normal race where you can choose your own strategy.”
Pit lane scrap with Stroll
When asked to elaborate on the things he was trying during the race, Gabriel Bortoleto revealed that he was simply attempting to refine his tyre management skills. Moreover, he asserted that instances of learning are copious even when a driver finds themselves at the back of the grid.
“Just tyre management and things like this, how to make it more accurate and better.
“Even if we are in the back, I think you can still try a lot of things. It’s the same thing as if you are P5, trying things. You have the same learnings and everything, just a bit less on the spotlight.”
Bortoleto also shed some light on the scrap he had with Stroll in the pit lane on Lap 7 of the F1 Qatar GP. Highlighting how nearly everyone had boxed under the Safety Car, the Brazilian clarified that he was merely trying to maintain track position and that a genuine battle between the two had already taken place in the first few laps of the race.
“He [Stroll] had a pit stop; I had my pit stop. He had his front wing on my rear tyre and then I just took it out the pit lane. Yeah, this was ahead of him.
“There was not really a fight there, you know. There was more of a fight on track earlier and then that’s it.”
