Why Bortoleto reminds Sauber stalwart Zehnder of a rookie-season Leclerc

Almost seven years ago, Charles Leclerc clinched his first Formula 1 points driving for Sauber after keeping his head above water in a wild Azerbaijan Grand Prix – one turned on its head by Max Verstappen’s collision with Daniel Ricciardo – to finish sixth.

Until that point, it had been a tepid start to Leclerc’s F1 career despite the acclaim he’d earned in his relatively uncontested run to the 2017 F2 title; team-mate Marcus Ericsson outqualified him in Australia and Bahrain, before Leclerc returned the favour in China. The Monegasque then broke into Q2 for the first time at Baku – and picked his way through a sea of carbon-shedding skirmishes ahead.

Although there was a degree of fortune involved in his Azerbaijan heroics, it lit the touchpaper for Leclerc’s season – one that, with Sauber’s progression through the year, led to a 39-point haul and a dream move to Ferrari for only his second year in F1.

That the Italian team’s recent years of conservatism in selecting its driving line-up was ignored for Leclerc only demonstrated how positively his maiden year in F1 was viewed.

Sauber’s latest rookie, Gabriel Bortoleto, is yet to get his own breakthrough after four rounds of the championship, but he’s already set tongues wagging back at Hinwil. Like 2018, points have been hard to come by for the team in the opening stages of the year, as Nico Hulkenberg’s seventh in the rain-affected Australia race yielded the only credits in the bank so far. But Bortoleto, on pace, has been on the veteran German’s level.

Team stalwart Beat Zehnder, who has been with the Swiss outfit before it even broke into F1 32 years ago, has worked up close with every rookie that has passed through the Sauber doors. When considering the work ethic of the “excellent” Bortoleto, Zehnder believes that his experience with Leclerc most aligns with the Brazilian’s approach.

“He has a big chunk of self-criticism,” Zehnder explained. “[In qualifying for Bahrain] he was disappointed about himself because Nico [made Q2], or Nico almost did it without the track limits. Nico was a bit quicker – and Gabi’s goal and Gabi’s target is to be quicker than Nico.

“He’s very open if he does a mistake by himself, is critical with the team in a good way what he needs to be quicker.

“For me he’s probably like Charles, on the same level in terms of working ethics, working together with the engineers, how much time he spends with the engineers wanting to understand every single bit.

“I really sincerely hope that we are able to give him during the course of this season, to give him a car which enables him to score points because he deserves it. He’s an excellent driver.”

During his appearance on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast series in 2022, Zehnder had previously described Leclerc as “one of the most complete” drivers he’d worked with across his time at Sauber; like the eight-time F1 winner, Bortoleto won the F2 and F3 (GP3 as-was) championships back-to-back, also matching the feat achieved by the likes of George Russell and Oscar Piastri.

Speaking about Sauber’s current car, Zehnder believes that although the C45 has shown strong downforce levels, the characteristics of the car’s handling does not always allow this to be exploited.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber

Photo by: Clive Rose / Getty Images

He added that both drivers’ feedback has been “incredible” in helping to get more out of the car, which has undergone a wealth of early development in the opening races – and was particularly enthused by Bortoleto’s reflections of the fluorescent green-tinged machine given the early stages he’s at in his career.

“The performance window of a modern F1 car is normally very narrow, and we know that we’ve measured quite a good chunk of downforce. But if you only measure downforce in an area where it doesn’t help you – [although you] should have a flat band of downforce, our car is tricky to drive.

“What we experienced a little bit already last year is we don’t like the heat too much. We perform better in a cooler environment, and this is something we’ll definitely work on.

“The good thing is that with both drivers in Nico and Gabi, we have two drivers who have incredible feedback, even Gabi said it in China already at the age of 20 – the feedback, the feeling he’s got for the car is impressive.”