While Nico Hülkenberg is busy scoring points, Sauber teammate Gabriel Bortoleto is chasing his first points – the Brazilian reveals what he thinks could be the reason
Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto continues to chase his first World Championship point in Formula 1, while Nico Hülkenberg has recently shone with fifth place in Spain and eighth in Canada. Why is that? “I think he gets more out of the car than you would actually expect,” admits Bortoleto.
“I think he’s an excellent driver and I really admire what he does,” praises the Brazilian, who finds the performance of his Sauber teammate “impressive.” “And I’m also happy because we have a very similar pace in qualifying and in the race.”
“It’s just that he manages to take advantage of every single opportunity,” says Bortoleto, explaining why he hasn’t managed to score his first points yet. “I’m convinced that it has a lot to do with experience. You see the race in a different way, which I can’t do yet.”
“And I think he does that really well,” says the Formula 1 rookie in high praise. “That’s why I’m learning from him, and I hope I can soon take the same steps as him. Then I can start scoring points for the team.”
Bortoleto admits: “Opportunities not taken”
The fact that he hasn’t managed to finish in the top 10 this season is not solely down to the Brazilian’s performance, but mainly to an unfortunate strategy or bad luck in the race. “I also think our season has been very good so far,” says Bortoleto, who is anything but dissatisfied.
“Unfortunately, it hasn’t really worked out in terms of race results. Something happens every time and we don’t manage to take advantage of the opportunities. We know that we haven’t had a car that can consistently score points this season.”
But “maybe that will change now,” hopes the Sauber driver. “We missed the few opportunities to score points for various reasons. Sometimes it was my fault, sometimes it was due to other circumstances.”
Better qualifying as the foundation for points
“I think that happens to every driver at some point,” says Bortoleto. “Nevertheless, it’s obviously frustrating not to score any points. Because I really want to start scoring points and give something back to the team for all their hard work.”
To do that, the 20-year-old believes he first needs to qualify among the top twelve. The Sauber driver actually managed to do that in Barcelona, but the strategy didn’t play into his hands in the race, so he couldn’t move up any further.
And most recently in Canada? While Haas driver Esteban Ocon finished ninth with a similar strategy, Bortoleto ended up in 14th place again. “I think Ocon chose a very similar strategy, probably even exactly the same,” muses the Sauber driver. “He managed to score points. I still need to take a look at that.”
Canada was “just a difficult race”
The turning point: While Ocon, who like Bortoleto started the race on hard tires, drove until lap 56, Sauber changed tires after just 49 laps. “Then they obviously had more pace,” he believes. “Because I couldn’t stay out any longer than I did.”
“I had faster cars behind me. Colapinto was putting a lot of pressure on me,” admits Bortoleto. “I think one or two more laps and I wouldn’t have been able to keep him behind me. It was just a difficult race. It was very hard to get to the front.”
Nevertheless, the Sauber driver is not letting his head drop. “I don’t want to think too much about this race right now. It’s obviously disappointing to be left without points again,” admits Bortoleto. “But we’ll see what we can achieve in the next race.”
