Sauber have just under three months to build a car that will lift them off the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship.
If it wasn’t for Zhou Guanyu’s brilliant eighth-place finish at the Qatar Grand Prix, Sauber would have gone through the entire 2024 campaign without scoring a point.
Change is on the horizon for Sauber, with Audi taking over when F1’s new regulations are introduced in 2026.
After three seasons with Zhou and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers, Audi’s new head of F1 Mattia Binotto decided a change was needed for next year.
Established star Nico Hulkenberg will be joined by Formula 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto.
Bortoleto has just been named the FIA Rookie of the Year after back-to-back championship victories.
The young Brazilian is highly rated, with Fernando Alonso adamant that Bortoleto will be F1’s best rookie in 2025, despite the fact he’s likely to have the slowest car on the grid.
He’s also had far less preparation for next season in Formula 1 cars than many of his rivals, but already impressed plenty of people in the Sauber garage.
Sauber already impressed with Gabriel Bortoleto’s communication during post-season test
There are currently four rookies signed up for 2025, with Liam Lawson almost certain to be on the grid in some capacity next year as well.
A report from UOL has shared more behind-the-scenes details about Bortoleto’s first nine hours in the Sauber during Tuesday’s post-season test.
Before the test, Bortoleto had only raced in an F1 car once during his time as a McLaren development driver, during a private run at the Red Bull Ring.
Bortoleto was said to sound ‘quite confident’ on the team radio by the time it reached the afternoon session after having to ask for help with some procedures earlier in the day.
READ MORE: Who is 2025 Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto? Everything you need to know
This won’t come as a surprise given how little time he’d spent driving an F1 car before, especially as the C44 is much more complicated than his Formula 2 car.
The report states that Bortoleto caught ‘everyone’s attention’ with his politeness when communicating with the team on the radio.
It’s an attribute that many drivers don’t necessarily possess and whether Bortoleto will still be that calm during wheel-to-wheel racing rather than a testing day is another matter.
Gabriel Bortoleto started on the back foot at Sauber compared to F1’s 2025 rookies
Binotto was said to be ‘delighted’ with Bortoleto after following his progress closely throughout the day.
He’s been ‘very impressed’ with the attitude he showed and stayed longer than Hulkenberg during the post-test debrief, asking plenty of questions.
Kimi Antonelli has done thousands of kilometres of testing with Mercedes ahead of the daunting task of replacing Lewis Hamilton.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Sauber from team principal to 2026 Audi future
Lawson, Oliver Bearman and Jack Doohan all have Formula 1 experience picked up over the past two seasons putting Bortoleto at an immediate disadvantage.
However, what Bortoleto has that none of the quartet above have achieved is an F2 championship win.
While that doesn’t necessarily translate into Formula 1 success, the latest drivers to achieve the same feat at Bortoleto – Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc and George Russell – have all gone on to be race winners at the highest level.
