Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
FIA Formula 3 champion Gabriel Bortoleto expects the mentorship of Fernando Alonso “will be even more useful” when he races in Formula 2 next year.
Bortoleto is part of the A14 Management stable and called the support of its co-founder Alonso “life-changing” early this year as he began his FIA F3 title charge.
“We were in very good shape with the car and myself. We adapted extremely quickly to the car and to the new tracks, especially in Melbourne,” Bortoleto said, reflecting on the winning start to his season.
“Then we went to Europe and we were still very quick, but we didn’t have maybe that little advantage that I had in the two first rounds, and I always managed to be inside the top three, top five. And I think even if I was trying my best to win, I wasn’t taking any risks. I was for sure managing the championship at that point. Even if it was at the beginning, I knew that I could end up – in this type of championship you cannot do a big mistake like losing one weekend of points because this costs you a lot of at the end of the year. So I think it was about consistency, that was the main key for me this year.”
Bortoleto joined Virtuosi Racing for F2 post-season testing and went 11th fastest. He said the test went “very well”, emphasing how quickly he familiarised himself with the team he will race for in 2024.
He will have two Formula 1-linked working relationships next year, one of those being Alonso and the other being McLaren’s driver development programme which Bortoleto joined in October.
“I have a good teacher, let’s say. It has been very good with Fernando and with all the team of A14. I think it will be even more useful for me next year, to get new tips for a different car. Much more heavier than F3, so something that Fernando is used to in F1 now.”
Bortoleto spent two days last week doing simulator work at McLaren, a “very nice experience” which was his first experience of an F1 simulator.
“It was very positive. I think the team was quite happy with what they saw and how I went there. There is still a lot of margin to improve as a first time – I think I will be doing a lot of sim work for them. And nowadays F1 [teams] are obligated to put a rookie driver to do two FP1s. I don’t have anything saying this in a contract or anything, but I mean this is the obvious if you are performing and if you are the closest on the academy.
“I’m the only driver in McLaren in F2 now, so it would be the sense, right, to make the FPs or something like this? I would say they will try to prepare me as much as I can in simulator, in on-track days and and also off-track helping on whatever I need.”