19-year-old driver now says Fernando Alonso helped him get a contract at McLaren this year

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Formula 3 champion Gabriel Bortoleto has admitted that F1 legend Fernando Alonso helped him get a contract at McLaren.

Bortoleto was speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast about his burgeoning motor racing career.

The 19-year-old put in a fantastic performance for Trident this season that saw him win the F3 championship by 45 points over Williams academy driver Zak O’Sullivan.

He’s got to move up to Formula 2 next season although his plans for next year haven’t been confirmed.

The young Brazilian wasn’t attached to an F1 team at the start of the season but that changed last month.

Bortoleto is now part of McLaren’s academy and that’s all thanks to Fernando Alonso.

The 42-year-old ‘legend’ is Bortoleto’s manager alongside his driving duties for Aston Martin.

Alonso runs the A14 Management company that looks after several young racing stars.

Although he doesn’t look like he’s going to hang up with racing gloves any time soon, he’s already getting his plans ready for when he retires one day.

Managing Bortoleto’s career could turn out to be incredibly fruitful as the teenager has proved that he’s incredibly quick.

Bortoleto admits Alonso was key to McLaren contract

Asked what the 42-year-old Spaniard is like as a manager, Bortoleto said: “I think Fernando [Alonso], he can do everything basically! Yeah, he’s amazing at that as well.

“I think he was the one guy that probably helped the most with my contract with McLaren, for example.

“Even when things weren’t going so well in Aston [Martin], he managed to get a little bit of his time in between races to go and speak to Zak [Brown] and to find out how to close this deal.

“I think this is very good, I don’t speak to Fernando every week, I don’t speak to him every time he’s on track because I know he’s busy.

“But, every time he sees me, he gives a little bit of his time to speak to me, to ask me if everything is going well and for sure he knows everything that’s going on in my career.”

McLaren and Alonso obviously have a prior relationship and they might have been the key to Bortoleto signing with the team.

There would have been several teams interested in the 19-year-old due to his exploits in F3 this season.

Alonso had two separate stints with McLaren, winning four races although he might not look back on his second spell too fondly after failing to earn a podium in four seasons with the team.

He’ll be hoping his young protégé has a better time with the team, although earning a seat in Andrea Stella’s team might be very difficult given how well Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are driving.