How Verstappen helped Bortoleto on his journey to F1

That Gabriel Bortoleto and Max Verstappen get along well has been evident on several occasions this year.

Just before the start of the Australian Grand Prix, the four-time Formula 1 world champion advised the Sauber rookie to start the race on intermediate tyres – a call that proved to be the right one. In Austrian GP qualifying, he even provided Bortoleto with a helpful slipstream. What’s less known, however, is that Verstappen had already been supporting Bortoleto before the Brazilian made it to F1.

“Max is an amazing guy,” Bortoleto told Autosport when asked about their relationship. “For me, together with Ayrton Senna, he’s the best driver ever. I truly see Max as one of the best out there. I really admire the way he approaches racing, the understanding of racing that he has, his understanding of the car, and the patience he shows in everything he does. And I see him as an example of a driver I would like to become – in terms of his expertise in racing and everything.”

The two first started bonding in 2023, when Bortoleto was still racing in Formula 3. “I started to talk more often with Max when I was at the beginning of my season in F3. We started playing a lot of video games together – and sim racing,” he said. “We created a very nice relationship where he helps me a lot. He helped me on my way to Formula 1 with a lot of tips and advice, and a lot of talking to people in the F1 paddock as well, about me.”

Jonathan Wheatley, who took over as Sauber team principal earlier this year after a long stint as sporting director at Red Bull Racing, was one of those people. “Jonathan always tells me Max rated me very highly to him before I came to Sauber/Audi,” Bortoleto revealed. “I know Max doesn’t speak often about this, and he doesn’t speak about it in the media, that he helped me by talking to people in Formula 1 about me. But he was willing to help me, because he saw I was doing good results.”

Their very first encounter dates back to 2017. A photo Bortoleto posted on Instagram stands as proof. “That was the first time I met Max, yes,” Bortoleto recalled.

“I was shaking. Because he had been part of the karting team I raced for, CRG, and the guys there spoke very highly of him,” he continued. “Max had just finished his second season in F1, and I’d heard so much about this young guy doing so well in Formula 1.

“So I really wanted to meet him. And one time he came to a race and I asked for a photo. He was absolutely cool and super nice. And then we took that picture. It went viral [earlier this year], because it’s nice to see that moment again now.”

Shared passion

Six years after that first photo, the two reconnected through sim racing – an activity both take very seriously.

“It’s funny, the history behind it, because I used to be really bad at sim racing,” Bortoleto said. “When I started, I hated it, because I wasn’t any good. And when you’re not good at something, normally you’re not very passionate about it. Because you’re basically getting your ass kicked.”

He vividly remembers his first sim racing experience. “It was in Milan. I didn’t have a sim at home or anything. It was a Ferrari sim at the Ferrari store,” he added.

“I went there and gave it a go, and I was so off the pace compared to the top guys. And I remember my father looking at me and he was like: ‘Stop complaining and saying that the sim isn’t good. Instead of whining, be good at this. And you have a reason to become good: this is your sport. You should be the best in this’. And since my father is my hero, I listened to him. I stopped complaining and saying ‘it’s not good’, ‘this doesn’t change anything in my life’ and ‘doing simulator is not realistic’. And I started practicing.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

It proved to be a turning point for Bortoleto. “I bought my first small simulator, so I could practice at home. And I got just addicted to it. Sim racing is so addictive. Once you start driving, you cannot stop.

“So I started upgrading my sim and I became one of the best, I would say, at sim racing – for a real driver. Obviously, there are sim drivers who are better than me, because they are doing it every single moment of the day, and I don’t have that much time. But I just love doing it, and I spend a lot of my day sim racing.”

Although Bortoleto felt differently after his first experience, he now says sim racing has become ‘extremely important’ for his development. “When you go to new tracks – or even ones you already know – it helps. When I arrive at a track, I feel like I’ve already done a thousand laps, just because of all the practice I did at home.

“You also learn a lot about car set-up. In the sim, you can change the set-up and try different things. Obviously, you can’t set up your actual F1 car in the sim, but you can learn a lot about what things you can change in the set-up, as they should change the same thing as in real life. So you can test things, like how the car will behave at certain tracks.”

A member of Verstappen’s team

Bortoleto has also been an ambassador for Team Redline, Verstappen’s professional sim racing team. “I joined in 2023, when I was still in F3. I was always talking and playing with the guys, but I officially joined them that year,” said Bortoleto.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber

Photo by: Andy Hone / LAT Images via Getty Images

What does his role involve? “I just practice with them. I do a lot of sim racing – mainly with Max – and sometimes with the other sim drivers. But we don’t do any official races together. Maybe at the end of the year there will be a couple of endurance races that I will be part of. But let’s see how it goes.”

Unlike Verstappen, he’s not involved in helping the team with car set-ups. “No, that’s not the job I do there,” revealed Bortoleto. “And I don’t have the time for that. Also, they mainly play iRacing and endurance races – different kinds of games from what I usually play. I drive the F1 car a lot, in Assetto Corsa, and occasionally do some iRacing in GT3 cars. When I play with the Team Redline guys, I try to set good lap times and we try to beat each other. But most of my time is spent in Assetto Corsa, driving the F1 car.”

A top-10 driver in Assetto Corsa

Asked where he ranks among the world’s best sim racers, Bortoleto smiled: “It depends on the game. In Assetto Corsa with the F1 car – which I focus on a lot – I’d say I’m top 10, maybe top 5. In other games, I’m maybe top 50 or top 100. It just depends on what I focus on. If I really focus on one game, I believe I can be in that range of the top 10. But it takes a lot of hours and dedication.”

“I play a lot of Assetto Corsa nowadays, because I feel like it’s the most realistic in terms of tyre behaviour and how the car behaves,” Bortoleto said. “iRacing is amazing for racing. And you have qualifying and practice sessions, so it feels like a race weekend a bit. But Assetto Corsa is more about doing laps by yourself or with your friends. So not about racing, but more about practicing and honing your skills.

“But I need to come back to iRacing a bit. I stepped away to focus more on F1 in Assetto, but I need to go back and focus a bit more on that to work on my ranking there.”