Christian Danner feels one Formula 1 driver has flown under the radar in the first part of the season, despite excelling against a teammate seen as one of the best qualifiers.
McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have largely been the pace setters in qualifying to start the 2025 F1 season. The papaya pals have scored pole position for three of the first five Grands Prix, interrupted by only Max Verstappen of Red Bull in Japan plus Saudi Arabia.
Verstappen stunned McLaren to steal pole in Japan as he produced one of the all-time great laps to pip Norris and Piastri by a mere 0.012 and 0.044 seconds. Tight margins even proved the difference as Verstappen denied Piastri pole in Saudi Arabia at the close of Q3 by 0.010s.
Christian Danner thinks ‘nobody’ has noticed Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto’s qualifying results
Yet Danner thinks a star at the other end of the grid is flying under the radar as ‘nobody’ has noticed the qualifying performances that Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto is delivering. He is particularly impressed by the Brazilian as Nico Hulkenberg is among the best qualifiers in F1.
Bortoleto rates Hulkenberg as ‘one of the fastest’ F1 drivers, but the 20-year-old has shown he can be a match for the 37-year-old. The Osasco, Sao Paulo native led Sauber’s qualifying efforts on debut in Australia as Bortoleto even got through to Q2 and the F1 Sprint in China.
READ MORE: Who is 2025 Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto? Everything you need to know
“He beat such an established man like Nico Hulkenberg twice in qualifying,” Danner has told Motorsport-Magazin. “Hulkenberg was considered a kind of qualifying god at Haas. Just recently, Kevin Magnussen said he was never able to do what Hulkenberg did in qualifying.
“Nobody noticed how good [Fernando] Alonso was [as a rookie] because he was sliding around at the back of the field in the Minardi. The same goes for Bortoleto in the Sauber.”
Gabriel Bortoleto is teammates with one of F1’s best qualifying drivers in Nico Hulkenberg
Bortoleto out-qualified Hulkenberg on his F1 debut at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, after the Sauber rookie finished qualifying in 15th place to the German’s 17th place. Hulkenberg was even 0.578 seconds slower than Bortoleto in Q1, but improved to finish the race in P7.
Melbourne is the only time that either driver has scored points this year and Sauber doubt they can repeat Hulkenberg’s P7 from Australia on pure merit. Bortoleto crashed out of his debut after pitting for intermediate tyres but he had earlier made contact with Hulkenberg.
READ MORE: Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg’s life outside F1 from wife to height
Hulkenberg has since qualified ahead of Bortoleto for every Grand Prix, while being quicker in the same phase of the session by 0.220s in China, 0.052s in Japan, 0.119s in Bahrain and 0.680s in Saudi Arabia. Yet Hulkenberg is widely regarded as one of the best qualifiers in F1.
Nico Rosberg felt Hulkenberg was ‘one of the best qualifiers’ in 2024 after he put last year’s Haas fourth on the grid at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He reached Q3 11 times last season to the three reached by teammate Magnussen, whose best qualifying was P7 in Mexico City.
The 2016 F1 champion’s view of his German compatriot is even one shared by Hulkenberg’s ex-Haas team principal. Guenther Steiner called Hulkenberg ‘one of the best qualifiers if not the best’ last term when he opened the season with P10 in Bahrain with Magnussen in P15.
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