Sauber and Audi Formula 1 boss Mattia Binotto admits that the recent success of young drivers helped to give him the confidence to put Gabriel Bortoleto straight into a race seat in 2025.
Reigning FIA F3 champion Bortoleto, who is currently leading the F2 series, was released by McLaren to take up the Sauber drive.
Intriguingly Binotto has revealed that Bortoleto was free to leave the Woking team, and that Audi didn’t have to pay for him.
He will join fellow youngsters Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson, Oliver Bearman and Kimi Antonelli on the 2025 grid, with Franco Colapinto also potentially in the frame for a seat in the Red Bull camp.
Audi has long indicated that it had to chose between youth and experience, and having decided on the former ultimately it was a question of whether Bortoleto would race in 2025, or use the season as a year of preparation for a debut in ’26.
The instant success of the likes of Bearman and Colapinto encouraged Binotto to go for the earlier option.
“If I look around, I think he’s one of the most talented and high potential drivers we’ve got as rookies,” he said when asked by formu1a.uno about the influence of the likes of Colapinto and Bearman on the decision.
“And for Audi, that was a winner – ‘go for it.’ It was between experienced or young drivers, I think certainly young drivers was a certitude, an answer. So it was only a matter by when. So we would have gone for Gabriel. That would have been, anyhow, our choice.
“And I think that the second and last question we were asking ourselves was should it be straight in ’25, or should we give him some time first to develop, and then maybe postpone to ’26?
“But finally yes, we see also young drivers doing well in F1, that give me mainly more confidence on the fact that Gabriel can do very well since the very start.
“And if any, that has been the convincing factor, not of the overall choice for a young driver, which I think young driver for Audi journey and project is important and essential.
“But more how fast, how soon, could that maybe happening? And I’m convinced he will do well since the very, very start.”
Regarding any compensation for McLaren he said: “Gabriel was somehow free to leave because he got the opportunity.”
Binotto stressed that it was key to have a young driver who can learn and grow as the team does.
“Certainly having secured Gabriel for a multi-year contract for us is important in our journey, looking at obviously our future,” he said.
“Audi has committed for a long journey, for being in F1 for many years, and somehow for us really to I would say start the journey together with a young driver, was something as well important.
“There is much that we will need to learn, improve as much as him. He will be a part with us on the journey. I’m very happy because, no doubt, he is a fantastic, high potential driver. I think that his career has proved it.”
He stressed that Bortoleto’s ability to improve over a season in the junior categories was an important factor.
“What he achieved, what he is achieving, the way I think he is driving, has impressed me,” he said.
“But more than that, more than that, as I told him, is his capacity to develop, improve and progress through the season itself.
“And I think he’s doing it as well in his season of F2. The start has been difficult, but then he’s really been capable not to lose, I would say, the direction, what he is trying to achieve, and he’s shown progress, and that’s what counts the most for me.
“I met him now a few weeks ago here in Hinwil the very first time in my office. I’ve been as well impressed by his personality, the attitude and the mindset.
“So I don’t think he’s only a fantastic, high potential driver, but he’s a great person, too, and that’s something very important for our project as well.”
