Allan McNish reveals qualities that give Gabriel Bortoleto “a lot of potential”

Audi racing director Allan McNish has delved into the mindset that makes Gabriel Bortoleto a competent Formula 1 driver.

Back-to-back Formula 3 and Formula 2 champion Bortoleto made his world championship debut with the Hinwil-based outfit (then Sauber) last year.

After being outscored by veteran team-mate Nico Hulkenberg 51-19 in 2025, Bortoleto is now up 10-2 at the 2026 summer break. He arguably shone most at a Spa-Francorchamps track where the new power unit manufacturer expected to struggle, clinching a remarkable eighth-place finish after qualifying ninth.

But the 21-year-old Brazilian has also impressed with his mental skills, on top of pure performance.

“He’s very analytical in terms of the way he drives and builds up his speed,” McNish told Motorsport.com. “And I think that’s something you can see by the way that he’s grown through this year and also through qualifying sessions, like in Spa, for example.

“In Formula 2 in Qatar, when he was leading, he pulled into the pits and they closed the pits due to a safety car or something, and he had to dive back out the pits, and because he crossed the white line, got a five-second penalty. How he reset and then went on in that race showed that he had a mental composure.” The Invicta driver crossed the finish line first, before the penalty dropped him to third, amid a tight title battle against current Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar.

Allan McNish, Racing Director, Audi F1 Team

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

“When you’ve got a mental composure – like he has the natural speed, but also an analytical way of delivering that speed – [it] gives you a lot of potential. And now he’s starting to grow with the experience as well to deliver on it.

“The thing that I like about him in addition to that is out of the car, he’s a positive, smiley person. So he’s nice to be around, he’s nice to have us around in the team as well. And with him and Nico, we’ve got a very good balance between the two of them because one’s got the experience and understands which way the wind blows just naturally and instinctively through that, and the other one’s got that youthful enthusiasm, and the two really feed off each other very, very well.”

Pressed on Bortoleto’s work ethic, McNish concurred: “He is a very hard worker. He is definitely the one that, you know, if there’s a sim session on 2 January, then he would be in the sim and he’d be working with Jose, his engineer. And it’s something that I think we need at the moment as well. We need drivers pushing us. We need drivers that are there supporting us when we need someone to jump in and hold the flag. Both are very much like that, and Gabi’s definitely in that vein.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team