Gabriel Bortoleto was dishing out the praise for his Sauber colleagues, joking he has been a “pain in the ass” with all his requests for the steering wheel.

F1 2025 brings with it a fresh feel to the grid with F1 rookies back in fashion. One of those new faces can be found at Sauber, as reigning Formula 2 Champion Gabriel Bortoleto – who won the F3 and F2 titles back-to-back – steps up to partner Nico Hulkenberg in an all-new line-up.

Gabriel Bortoleto has been ‘pain in ass’ over Sauber steering wheel

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Two days are now complete in the three-day Bahrain pre-season test, Bortoleto clocking 59 laps on Day 1 and 80 on Day 2, and the Brazilian was asked by PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher how he is getting on with understanding the complex steering wheels of Formula 1.

“Well, we keep changing until the last moment that we were able to do so!” Bortoleto replied with a laugh.

“But I really need to thank the team from electronics, the team that build the steering as well in Sauber.

“People don’t see all the hard work they put in at the factory. But I’m very grateful, you know, for everything they have done for me so far, because I’ve been a pain in the ass with them, you know, ‘Can you please change this? Can you please change that?’

“But they did everything, and they made it on time for here. So very grateful.”

F1 2025 testing Day 2: A deeper dive into the tech details

👉 F1 testing 2025 gallery: All the latest technical details on display in Bahrain – Day 2

👉 F1 uncovered: Mercedes tackling persistent problem with new W16 floor duct?

Formula 1 machinery is far less familiar to ex-McLaren junior Bortoleto than to several of his fellow F1 2025 rookies, the likes of Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes and Jack Doohan at Alpine possessing plenty of testing and FP1 experience, while Oliver Bearman – an F2 rival of Bortoleto’s last season – has already contested three grands prix, one for Ferrari and two for Haas.

And when asked if he is the worst-prepared F1 2025 rookie in terms of mileage covered, Bortoleto replied: “Well, to be honest, I don’t care. Because in Formula 3 and Formula 2 was the same. I never did any private testing in my life, if I’m very, very honest.

“In Formula 3, I did two or three days of GP3, that wasn’t even close to the Formula 3. And then with Formula 2, by being so expensive to do a day with the GP2 car, more than 30, 35k a day, I didn’t have the possibility to afford to make plenty of days.

“So we went straight for the Bahrain pre-season test and well, it ended up working very well!

“Obviously, when you have less preparation than the others, you need to work much harder, probably, and also adapt much faster.

“But it’s always a disadvantage, right? You could see at the early stages of my Formula 2 season I had some problems that probably if I did private testing before, they wouldn’t happen, because I would know the right procedures and things to do.

“And hopefully, I don’t… For sure I will have problems in Formula 1, because it’s so much different, it’s so many things, but hopefully I try to minimise them as much as possible and get quickly up to speed.”

Bortoleto does have the advantage of an F1 veteran to learn from on the other side of the garage in Nico Hulkenberg, and a fast F1 veteran at that.

It may be early days for this driver duo, but Bortoleto believes he and Hulkenberg are already “aligned” on what they want from the Sauber C45.

Asked if he finds himself agreeing with Hulkenberg a lot in terms of feedback, Bortoleto confirmed: “Yeah.

“I mean with different conditions, you know. He run basically the whole time with the softest compound we have here [on day one], and I didn’t, I ran with the hardest one.

“So it also changes a bit the balance of the car.

“But I think we are quite aligned, because we don’t drive that different at the end of the day. Obviously there is a bit of difference because this is common, but the good thing is that we are aligned, and it’s important that I also listen to him, because he has experience and he knows things that in this moment, I don’t.

“But I’m getting there, and yeah, it has been very good.”

Read next: Mercedes W16 riddle appears in Bahrain after cooler temperature reveal