Bortoleto: I'm in F1 because I won F2, F3, like Piastri, Russell and Leclerc

Having started his single-seater career in 2020, Bortoleto entered F3 in 2023 and won the title at the first time of asking, and he repeated the feat in 2024 when he became an F2 driver, winning as a rookie which, resulted in him getting an F1 seat with Sauber in 2025.

Bortoleto's achievements in the junior series put him in the same club of big F1 names: Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Oscar Piastri.

All three won F2 and F3 in their first attempts and went on to secure top F1 seats, becoming grand prix winners and consistent contenders for wins.

Bortoleto commented about the comparison; he said: "For me, it’s an honor to be amongst these names. You can see that these drivers are race winners in Formula 1, strong candidates to be future title contenders, so for me it’s a privilege to be a part of that list.

"They’re drivers that are very strong and an inspiration to the younger generation coming through F2 and F3 looking to do the same as they did in the past.

"For me, it’s nice to be part of this club. Now it’s about looking forward and seeing what I can do in F1 too," he maintained.

Bortoleto looked back on all the hard work that helped him win his titles in the F1 feeder series, insisting there was not luck there, but a tough grind by himself and his team.

He explained: "It’s not come easy. It has been a lot of hard work from the team and myself and my teammates. With Trident in F3 and Invicta in F2, I don’t know how many hours of simulator we’ve done through these two years. It’s not a coincidence and I think this is now a result of the hard work on mine and the teams’ side.

"I’ve been a part of two teams that have strong engineers and mechanics, everyone worked hard to achieve these results, and I think consistency was one of the biggest qualities across these F3 and F2 seasons.

"We’ve always been able to be fast. It helps a lot to be consistent, scoring regular points and being in the top fights," he pointed out.

However, Bortoleto's title-winning F2 campaign in 2024 did not have a strong start, but he pointed out the moment when things changed at Monza, where he won the feature race from 22nd on the grid following a qualifying error.

The Brazilian looked back: "I felt so strong after that, everything was going so well for me. I think that was the moment. We started this year in a difficult position, we didn’t score many points.

"By Monza, I think I was 38 points behind Hadjar, and I did my only mistake in Qualifying of the year," he recalled. "We scored in the Sprint and then won from last in the Feature Race.

"I thought afterwards that this was the moment I turn things around. Then we went to Baku, and I took the lead of the Championship."

While he was chasing his maiden F2 title from the first attempt, Bortoleto was having talks with Sauber about a 2025 F1 season alongside Nico Hulkenberg, with Mattia Binotto now at the helm of the team that will become Audi in 2026.

On whether the talks were a distraction, Bortoleto claimed they were not and revealed they were mostly done within the F2 break between September's weekend in Azerbaijan and December's race in Lusail, Qatar.

"I think the break was quite good for me," he claimed. "The negotiations were done by the last two weekends and I was already announced, but through Monza and Baku, we were still talking so these were the moments where performance was very important.

"Mattia has been very, very good and knew we were fast and knew we had the opportunity to do great work together. With the results I was earning in F2, it was clear for us that we were progressing, and the season had been good. Every race I was progressing as a driver, and we were doing the job better.

"In Qatar and Abu Dhabi, there was less pressure after I’d got the contract, but the pressure of winning was still there, to win the Formula 2 Championship, that pressure was still there," he added.

Bortoleto was announced as Sauber's 2025 F1 driver back in November, and he talked of the moment F1 became a reality for him and the people he shared that with. He said: "I was with my girlfriend and had my parents on FaceTime, one of my sponsors was on the phone call as well – that was a very special moment for us.

"They were there and got to be part of me signing my F1 contract. When you have a lot of people behind you, supporting you, reassuring you that you can do it, wishing you good luck, it can mean the pressure is a little higher.

"But that was never something that got me out of focus, it was a positive for me. Having those good people around me, supporting me since I was young – when I won, it was a weight off my shoulders.

"I proved to myself that by winning F3 and F2, I deserve to be here. I didn’t get the deal because of anything else, I did this because I won both Championships, like Piastri, Russell and Leclerc," he asserted.

Bortoleto is the first Brazilian driver to join the F1 grid since Felipe Massa retired at the end of the 2017 season, and he has quite some responsibility towards the country that gave F1 the likes of Ayrton Senna, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Nelson Piquet, all champions of the sport. That is not to mention several Brazilian race winners.

"I’m happy to be representing my country, but that doesn’t satisfy me entirely," he said. "I want to be representing my country and doing well, but I want to be winning races in the future, fighting for important things. But first, I need to improve as a driver and progress in F1, that’s the most important thing for me now.

"But my aim is higher than that. I’m not only happy being a Formula 1 driver. I want to be able to fight for things and to make my country proud of everything I can achieve.

"We’ll learn new things; I’ll improve because now it’s a different situation. F2 was the focus until I finished the season and that [was] Sunday night.

“Then, when I jumped into the Sauber on Monday to start preparing and doing big briefings and meetings with the team, that was the moment where the focus changed.

"When I jumped into the car for the test, it was so, so good. Zero pressure, just a new start and a new journey. Let’s see how this one goes," Bortoleto concluded.

Before he was announced by Sauber, Bortoleto received the best of praises as Max Verstappen said the Swiss team should sign the Brazilian when asked who he thought should be Hulkenberg's teammate.