Sauber Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley has delivered a lenient verdict on Gabriel Bortoleto‘s mistake during the start of the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Brazilian collided with Lance Stroll at Turn 1 on the first lap, causing both drivers to soon retire and landing the Sauber driver a five-place grid drop for Qatar.
Bortoleto perhaps showed too much willingness to make up ground from the back of the field, but it was also an instance of inexperience from the rookie driver.
It has been an impressive debut year from Bortoleto, with a flurry of impressive performances, in which he has, on occasion, headed team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.
Following the race in Nevada, Wheatley, when asked whether he should occasionally ask Bortoleto to slow down, conveyed that it would be an unrealistic ambition.
“Telling a racing driver to slow down is not always a successful tactic!” he quipped to media including Motorsport Week.
“No, he made a mistake. He misjudged his braking point and actually showed real humility.
“He went and spoke to Lance after the race to apologise, which I think shows, again, a tremendously positive side to Gabriel in the way he handles himself in these situations.
“He and I had a very good conversation after the race, just together.
“I’ve said it before, but the wonderful thing about Formula 1 is we get to do it all again next weekend and the weekend after.
“I’m sure he’ll put it behind him. Another learning exercise in his first year in Formula 1.”
Sauber has taken a ‘long-term view’ with Bortoleto
The final two rounds take place in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, circuits which Bortoleto knows well, having driven on them en route to the Formula 2 title last term.
When asked whether that would be a benefit for him, Wheatley agreed, adding that, despite the Stroll incident, Bortoleto acquitted himself well in Las Vegas.
“I think that makes a big difference,” he recognised.
“Actually, it’s a pretty tricky weekend and I was very impressed with his performance. He kept away from the walls. He built up his pace really carefully again.
“He was a little bit cautious in one sector in his last timed lap. I think he would have progressed through to Q2 really easily.
“Today, I think, again, it’s easy to forget that it’s his first season, but actually it was a genuine driver error.”
Bortoleto will, of course, have a clean slate from next year, given F1 2026 will feature brand new cars, which will put him alongside all drivers on an equal footing of sorts.
Wheatley is confident in Bortoleto’s capability as a driver, saying that he and the team have taken a “long-term view” towards him, as Sauber prepares to morph into Audi.
“The wonderful thing about the sport at the moment is these young drivers that are in the championship,” he explained.
“I think we’ve seen them all have their up and downs over the course of the year. They’ve had their up and downs in karting. They’ve had their up and downs in Formula 2 and Formula 3.
“You take a long-term view. As a team, we take a long-term view. When you decide to invest in new talent, bring somebody into the business, you just have to accept that it’s part of the learning process.
“Unfortunately, I think we can all agree you learn the most from the biggest mistakes you make.”
There have been a series of peaks and troughs for both Bortoleto and Hulkenberg this season, but the experienced German has been performing well of late.
Wheatley denied the notion that has been demoralising for Bortoleto, causing him to overdrive and more prone to mistakes, such as the Sprint crash in Brazil.
“I wouldn’t read too much into that,” he addressed. What I would say is that Gabriel did his first Brazilian Grand Prix, first home Grand Prix. We, as a team, tried to do our best to keep his, as you all know, his media stuff to a minimum, his partner engagement stuff to a minimum as well.
“But there’s a pressure, I think. It’s hard to quantify. So I think you just have to look at that as an outlier anyway. This weekend he’s driven a very solid weekend.
“Nico’s a very fast driver and I think a lot of people were asking me four months ago whether Nico had lost it, whether he was struggling in qualifying.
“Look at it today. I think it’s just the ebb and flow of a race season. I think these cars, the operating window is so tight, the margins are so tight. It just looks magnified.
“I’m not reading anything into it.”
READ MORE – How Nico Hulkenberg helped pick Gabriel Bortoleto up from home F1 ‘weekend to forget’
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