Rubens Barrichello explains why he’s still got questions over Sauber signing Gabriel Bortoleto

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Brazil has a history of producing some of the greatest drivers ever to race in Formula 1.

Ayrton Senna’s legacy still lives on 30 years after his untimely death, and Lewis Hamilton’s run in his iconic McLaren at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix was one of the most emotional moments of the season.

The official name of the Interlagos circuit is named after F1 race winner Carlos Pace, while Nelson Piquet and Emerson Fittipaldi are both multiple world champions.

However, Felipe Massa was the last permanent Brazilian driver on the grid and after his retirement in 2017, Brazilian fans have had to settle for a brief cameo appearance from Pietro Fittipaldi at Haas.

That will change in 2025 though, as Sauber have decided to sign Gabriel Bortoleto to race alongside Nico Hulkenberg.

Bortoleto has to shoulder the hopes of a nation, although he would have seen the reception Franco Colapinto received in Brazil and realised that he can look forward to an even bigger reaction when he takes part in his first Grand Prix next year.

Rubens Barrichello is another of Brazil’s most successful F1 drivers and in an interview with Beyond The Grid, was asked about the 20-year-old.

While he admits that the youngster is very talented, he still has a couple of unanswered questions that Bortoleto needs to answer before he can become an established star on the grid.

Rubens Barrichello sends message to Sauber’s new Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto

Barrichello was asked if he rates Bortoleto ahead of his F1 debut and explained: “I do rate him for sure.

“Right now it’s not a question of his driving ability. It’s to see how well he’s prepared to deliver.

“Right now, everything is lovely. People look at you differently, the paddock is watching you and the behaviour right now is just fun.

“But he is a very good driver, we just have to see how he develops on mind management, on how he manages things because it’s going to be a lot of pressure.

“He’s the next one, for a very long time we didn’t have [a Brazilian driver] so a lot of expectations from the public so we have to see.”

READ MORE: Who is 2025 Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto? Everything you need to know

Host Tom Clarkson then asked if there was one piece of advice Barrichello had for Bortoleto, and he continued: “Get to know yourself. That’s the best advice I could give him right now.

“We don’t have to get angry or feel bad about the bad times. The bad times exist for us to be better.

“It would have been boring if we didn’t have that, you would have won all the races and you don’t know what’s the value of actually going through and winning a race.”

Gabriel Bortoleto could have a key advantage over Formula 1’s other 2025 rookies

Promoting young drivers into F1 hasn’t happened very often in recent years, but the form of Colapinto, Oliver Bearman and Liam Lawson appears to have changed the minds of a few teams.

Bortoleto is currently the fourth rookie confirmed for next year, with Bearman joining Haas, Jack Doohan signing for Alpine and Kimi Antonelli stepping into Lewis Hamilton’s shoes at Mercedes.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber from team principal to Audi future

Bortoleto will know that he’s unlikely to be challenging for points very often at Sauber next year.

The Swiss team are pointless this season and with Audi’s takeover on the horizon – and a potential partial takeover of Audi coming very soon – it’s hard to see the team investing too much in their 2025 car when they’re so far off the pace this year.

It means Bortoleto can spend a year getting to grips with F1 and learning as much from Hulkenberg as possible.

The pressure will begin to build on Bortoleto in 2026 when Audi will expect to no longer be rooted to the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship.