Ranking the last 10 Brazilian Formula 1 drivers before Gabriel Bortoleto debuted for Sauber

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Gabriel Bortoleto became the 35th Brazilian driver to race in F1 when he debuted for Sauber in 2025, also ending his country’s wait for its first a full-time driver since 2017.

Brazil has a rich history in Formula 1, but no driver from the South American nation had held a full-time seat in the pinnacle of motorsport since Felipe Massa retired until Bortoleto joined Sauber.

Bortoleto agreed to debut in F1 with Sauber in the 2025 season after signing a multi-year contract with Audi to help shape the German brand’s arrival in 2026. Audi had to reach an agreement with McLaren for Bortoleto to leave their driver academy as well.

McLaren refused to stand in Bortoleto’s way when Audi could present him with a route onto the F1 grid, as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri blocked his path in Woking. The Sao Paulo native joined Nico Hulkenberg in replacing Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu at Sauber.

Bortoleto stepped up to F1 off the back of winning the 2023 FIA F3 and 2024 F2 titles as a rookie. Manager Fernando Alonso backed Bortoleto to be F1’s best rookie in 2025, with his exciting speed and talent clear to see.

Bortoleto had plenty of highs and some lows during his rookie campaign, as he utilised driving for a backmarker in Sauber to hone his trade in the pinnacle of motorsport. His qualifying speed especially shone through after edging Hulkenberg 12-11 in their head-to-head.

His maiden Sao Paulo Grand Prix was a particularly tough weekend, as Bortoleto had a 57g crash in the F1 Sprint in Brazil and crashed on the first lap of the Grand Prix after contact with Lance Stroll.

Also, Bortoleto had the most expensive crash repair bill in the 2025 F1 season at just shy of £3million, which was 3.8 times more than Hulkenberg’s damage cost Sauber that year.

Bortoleto will hope his F1 career goes on to add to Brazil’s rich history in the series, which has seen Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet Sr and Ayrton Senna become world champions.

Only the United Kingdom has to date produced more F1 champions than Brazil, which also boasts the third-most titles by a nation to date.

With that in mind, F1 Oversteer has ranked the 10 Brazilian drivers who made it to Formula 1 before Bortoleto debuted with Sauber in 2025.

10 – Pietro Fittipaldi (2020, Haas)

The last Brazilian to race in F1 before Bortoleto was two-time champion Fittipaldi’s grandson, Pietro Fittipaldi. Unfortunately for the 28-year-old, his time in the pinnacle of motorsport was short-lived.

Pietro only contested two rounds in his brief F1 career after stepping in at Haas for Romain Grosjean at the final two rounds of 2020. Haas called on their reserve driver to stand in following Grosjean’s huge crash during the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Driving an underdeveloped car, Fittipaldi could only manage 17th and 19th place during the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix respectively, before returning to his reserve role.

9 – Lucas di Grassi (2010, Virgin Racing)

Similar to Fittipaldi, Lucas di Grassi had an underwhelming time in F1 as he was stuck driving an underdeveloped car at Virgin Racing.

The differences were that he got a full-season and the car he drove was one of the worst machines of the 2010s.

Di Grassi was signed to newcomers Virgin Racing in 2010 alongside former Toyota driver, Timo Glock. The team were desperately underprepared for the season, leaving the Brazilian languishing at the back of the grid all season.

The 40-year-old achieved a best finish of 14th in Malaysia as he scored no points before leaving Virgin Racing at the end of the season.

Di Grassi went on to have great success outside of F1, winning the 2016/17 Formula E title after forging a name for himself in the World Endurance Championship.

8 – Ricardo Zonta (2004, Toyota)

Ricardo Zonta had two stints in F1, after first hitting the grid between 1999 and 2001 before enjoying a brief return with Toyota in 2004. But both of his spells in the paddock yielded very little success.

The native of Curitiba in the State of Parana failed to score a point with British American Racing (BAR) in 1999, and he would only score three points in 2000 after finishing sixth in Melbourne, Monza and Indianapolis.

BAR dropped Zonta from their line-up for 2001, but he still featured twice that year with Jordan Grand Prix. Zonta stood in for Heinz-Harald Frentzen in Canada and finished seventh, but he retired in Germany whilst deputing after Jordan sacked Frentzen.

Zonta later returned to F1 at the end of the 2004 season with Toyota as the replacement for fellow countryman Cristiano da Matta. He drove in five of the final six races of the season, but scored no points.

Zonta took on a test driver role with Toyota in 2005 and was entered in the 2005 United States Grand Prix after Ralf Schumacher crashed during practice. But Toyota would also withdraw Zonta from the race at Indianapolis after he crashed amid Michelin’s tyre woes.

7 – Antonio Pizzonia (2005, Williams)

Antonio Pizzonia began his F1 career as a test driver for Williams, before landing a full-time seat with Jaguar for the 2003 season alongside Mark Webber. But after 11 races with no points scored, he was dropped by the team and replaced by Justin Wilson.

Pizzonia would go on to make part-time appearances with Williams across the 2004 and 2005 campaigns. The Brazilian replaced Marc Gene for four races in 2004, and finished seventh three times to score six points.

He even enjoyed a spell leading the 2004 Belgian Grand Prix, but he ended up retiring with a gearbox issue while running third. In 2005, Pizzonia replaced Nick Heidfield for the final five races of the season, scoring two points at Monza with seventh after qualifying P16.

6 – Cristiano da Matta (2004, Toyota)

Da Matta spent a year and a half with Toyota before the Japanese manufacturer replaced him with Zonta midway through the 2004 season, having struggled to make much of an impact.

The Brazilian scored 10 points in 2003, including finishing sixth at Barcelona and Hockenheim plus seventh at Silverstone and Suzuka. Da Matta finished the season 13th in the standings.

But the 2004 season yielded just three points with sixth place in Monaco, and also saw Zonta be disqualified from the Canadian Grand Prix alongside teammate Olivier Panis for having illegal brake ducts.

5 – Nelson Piquet Jr (2009, Renault)

The son of three-time champion Nelson Piquet Sr, Nelson Piquet Jr was infamous in F1 for two reasons – being incredibly accident-prone and, ironically, the Crashgate scandal.

The Brazilian joined Renault in 2008 to make his F1 debut alongside Fernando Alonso, who had re-joined the team from McLaren.

Piquet did not have a great start to his F1 career, as he retired from nine of the 18 races that year. Yet the Brazilian, who was born in Heidelberg, West Germany, did score his first and only podium in F1 with second in the German Grand Prix.

But the most notable thing he did that season was his involvement in Crashgate, where he was ordered by Flavio Briatore to deliberately crash during the Singapore Grand Prix to bring out the safety car and help Alonso win.

After scoring 19 points from 28 Grand Prix, Piquet Jr was sacked by Renault in the wake of the scandal coming to light.

4 – Bruno Senna (2012, Williams)

Unfortunately, Bruno Senna joins Piquet Jr on the list of relatives of Brazilian F1 champions who failed to impress as much during their time in Formula 1.

The nephew of Ayrton Senna, Bruno began his F1 career, like Di Grassi, with a backmarker in 2010 in Hispania Racing – also known as HRT. In the 18 races he competed in, he retired from nine of them and failed to score a point as he struggled to work with an incredibly underdeveloped car.

Senna signed with Renault for the 2011 season as a test driver and later replaced Heidfeld for the remaining eight races of the season, scoring two points at the Italian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian returned to a full-time seat the following year with Williams alongside Pastor Maldonado, scoring 31 points and finishing 16th in the standings.

3 – Felipe Nasr (2016, Sauber)

Joining Sauber in 2015 after being a test driver with Williams the year prior, Felipe Nasr had a brilliant debut in F1 as he finished an impressive fifth in the Australian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian scored some standout results with the team that season in a car that was perhaps not expected to finish as high as he managed to get it on occasion. Nasr scored 27 points that season and finished 13th in the standings.

Sauber suffered a major dip in performance in 2016, and the Brasilia native could only manage two points all season with ninth place at his home race in Sao Paulo.

Nasr left Sauber that year, and he went on to become a multiple-time IMSA SportsCar champion and secured multiple outright victories in the Daytona 24 Hours.

2 – Felipe Massa (2017, Williams)

Unlike the previous names on this list, Massa and the top Brazilian driver on this ranking are the only ones to win races in Formula 1 – and they both did so with Ferrari.

Massa spent three seasons with Sauber to start his F1 career, after initially debuting with them in 2002 before returning in 2004 and 2005. He moved to Maranello in 2006 and went on to win 11 races with the Scuderia.

The Sao Paulo native also came agonisingly close to winning the F1 drivers’ championship in 2008 after winning his home race. But Great Britain’s Lewis Hamilton stole the title by just one point after overtaking Germany’s Timo Glock on the final lap.

That victory in Sao Paulo in 2008 would prove to be Massa’s final race win in F1, and many would argue that he never fully recovered from the horrifying accident he suffered at the 2009 Hungarian GP.

Massa scored a total of 36 podiums with Ferrari before he joined Williams in 2014, with whom he scored a further five podiums before retiring in 2017.

He initially called time on his F1 career at the end of 2016 with an emotional send-off in Sao Paulo. But he agreed to re-join Williams for one final season in 2017 following Valtteri Bottas’ departure to replace 2016 champion Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.

1 – Rubens Barrichello (2011, Williams)

Given all that Rubens Barrichello achieved in F1 after debuting in 1993, he easily takes the top spot on this list. And many F1 fans may be left thinking what could have been for the Brazilian, as he just could not get over that final hurdle to win the title.

After driving for Jordan (1993-96) and Stewart (1997-99) during his early years on the grid, Barrichello joined Ferrari in 2000 to act as the number two to Michael Schumacher, who won five consecutive world championships.

The Brazilian won nine races across his six seasons with the Maranello squad, and he also finished as the runner-up to Schumacher twice. But Barrichello was rarely allowed to be more than a No2, which even saw Ferrari order him to yield the win in the 2002 Austrian GP.

Barrichello left Ferrari to join Honda in 2006, where he enjoyed three seasons before the team suddenly pulled out of F1 amid the global financial crisis.

Ross Brawn took over what was left of the Honda operation to establish Brawn GP and eventually struck a deal with Barrichello to race for the team.

The Brazilian grabbed two wins as Brawn won the 2009 F1 constructors’ championship. But he finished third in the drivers’ standings, as teammate Jenson Button held off Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel to win the title.

Mercedes taking over Brawn GP from 2010 and signing German duo Michael Schumacher and Rosberg saw Barrichello secure a move to Williams. He scored 51 points across two seasons with the Grove team before retiring in 2011.