Gabriel Bortoleto has outlined the small steps that Audi is taking in Formula 1 pre-season testing to ensure its car is race-ready for the season-opener in Australia.
The German marque put in laps on Day 1 of the behind-closed-doors pre-season test in Barcelona, having previously shaken the car down at the same circuit two weeks ago.
Audi’s R26 is the team’s first-ever F1 car, and its debut comes at the start of the sport’s new regulations cycle, ensuring technical headaches for all squads early on.
And the Brazilian, who completed an impressive rookie campaign under its previous Sauber guise last year, indicated he and the team were pleased with large aspects of the day’s runnings, but admitted that the nature of the shakedown would also lead to unwanted discoveries.
![Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen [pictured with Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore] is stern in his belief Mercedes has acted correctly](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Alpine-Steve-Nielsen-Flavio-Briatore-120x86.webp)
“Yeah, it was, I would say, a bit of a short day as well at the same time,” he said. “We were doing a pretty decent job in the morning, putting some laps on board, testing some things.
“We’re going in the right direction. But as we all expect, this is a shakedown, and everything can happen, and we expect to find issues here and there in the car.”
Bortoleto said that some anomalies were found in the R26 that led to a brief stoppage, and when asked if they would set the team back for the rest of the week, he believed that analysing the data would be crucial to make sure the car will be reliable once it arrives in Australia.
“Unfortunately, it [the stoppage] came a bit early, and we couldn’t put everything in place to continue. But we’re going to analyse data, we’re going to understand how to, not have these mistakes again or these issues that we had in the car, and try to have smooth days and a lot of laps because that’s what we need.
“You know, we need laps. First, we need to put laps and then we start working in the car and in other things. But I feel like we need to keep doing what we’re doing and we’re going to get there.”
READ MORE – Why Gabriel Bortoleto was ‘ready to go back’ just five days into F1 winter break
![Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen [pictured with Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore] is stern in his belief Mercedes has acted correctly](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Alpine-Steve-Nielsen-Flavio-Briatore-350x250.webp)
![Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen [pictured with Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore] is stern in his belief Mercedes has acted correctly](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Alpine-Steve-Nielsen-Flavio-Briatore-360x180.webp)
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