Gabriel Bortoleto denied the common criticisms of the 2026 Formula 1 regulations that claim the fastest drivers are no longer inherently fast.
With the massive overhaul in regulations that 2026 has brought to the sport, so too have come a lot of questions about whether the changes have improved or harmed the quality of racing in F1.
Many of the front runners have complained about the way the regulations have changed racing, with the electric recharging playing a significant impact on track battles. Drivers like Verstappen and Leclerc have noted how the regulations have curbed their ability to push cars to the limit.
However, Bortoleto disagreed. The Brazilian is in his second season of Formula 1 and currently holds 10 of Audi’s 12 points.
Despite Oscar Piastri saying he had to ‘rewire his brain’ and other drivers reiterating that point, Bortoleto retorted that the great drivers on the grid still lead the field.
“Do you see Verstappen being slow?
“Do you see a seven-time world champion being slow this year? Do you see Leclerc being slow? I don’t see them being slow. I still see them very competitive. So I wouldn’t say fast drivers are slow.”
Looking at some of the drivers on the grid, Bortoleto actually said that drivers like Lewis Hamilton, who struggled in the 2022-2025 regulation, are performing better now.
“Actually, Lewis is a bit better than he was doing last year. Max is still performing like crazy, putting that car on top.
“Lando, the reigning world champion, is still quick when his thing [power unit and car] doesn’t break, so…”
Though journalists laughed at the comment from the Brazilian, Bortoleto added: “It’s the truth… So I don’t think we have seen slow drivers last year becoming quick, and the quick guys slow; it’s still racing.”
No change in driving style
With the specific driving styles constantly being referenced in the new regulations, Bortoleto slammed this discussion in its entirety. He claimed that the top drivers should be able to adapt no matter what.
“I don’t think I changed my way of driving much,” Bortoleto told the media, including Motorsport Week. “But I don’t like the sentence ‘driving style’ because I don’t believe that a Formula 1 driver should ever say that, because we should be able to adapt, even if it’s not natural.
“But we should be able to adapt to any type of car and the way you need to drive; that’s why we do what we do, and that’s why we are the 22 drivers in the world doing Formula 1. So I think it’s just a matter of what car you have and how you need to drive it.”
Even beyond his qualms with talking about driving style, Bortoleto admitted that he drives the 2026 car largely the same way as he drove in his rookie season.
“I think from last year I didn’t change much the way I drive. Obviously, you fine-tune a bit here and there; you know how the energy deploys out of some corners, so you know if you can push more the entry and you care about less on the exit because there’s no energy being deployed there, or if you actually need to be a bit more careful on the entry because there’s going to be a long straight and a lot of energy being deployed.
“So, you need to change, like, last year was always constant, so you didn’t have to do so.”
‘Different’ corner to corner
Rather than the driving style facing changes, Bortoleto spoke about how it more comes down to the approach of each corner. With the battery and recharging, he admitted ‘it’s different’ than the traditional approach of going slow in and fast out on every corner.
“No. But again, it’s not like this every corner; it’s different,” He said.
“If you want an example, I’m gonna give you a good example. So, out of T13 at Spa-Francorchamps [The Fagnes Chicane], we didn’t have any deployment on the engine.
“So basically, if you just push a bit more in the corner, you could run a bit wider in Turn 12 and still go full throttle very early for [Turn] 13 because you don’t have deployment and we have a lot of downforce; the car was not going to snap or lose the rear because you don’t have enough power.”
The Audi driver recognised that while this change comes with pushback, motorsport is about developments and changes, and people shouldn’t get stuck in their ways of the one way things should work.
“So it’s a different way of approaching. But again, I think motorsport shouldn’t be about only one way of driving, or it’s not, because we learned something in go-karting that we need to be doing the same thing for the rest of our lives.
“I think driving techniques need to be… My engineer is smiling because he keeps pushing me in that direction, and I think it’s important that you are able to adapt to everything.
“And there are going to be times that I’m going to be frustrated because I’m not going to be able to do something, but that’s the fun part of motorsport as well.”
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