Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi): “Are we going to moan for three years or what?”

A sigh of relief at Audi: at last, some fresh World Championship points have been secured, with 21-year-old Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto crossing the finish line in eighth place at the historic Silverstone Grand Prix. Since the start of the season in Melbourne, the Audi drivers Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg had repeatedly just missed out on the points.

F3 and F2 champion Bortoleto says: “I’m very pleased with this result: the team really deserved these points. We’d had a few races where we came away empty-handed, and that was tough. When you know the car’s potential but haven’t been able to turn it into something concrete, it hurts. This eighth place is a huge boost for everyone. And the pace was genuine.”

“The team did an incredible job of getting the car into the right working window and then delivering both a strong qualifying session and a solid race. I’m really delighted for everyone, both at the track and in Hinwil and Neuburg: everyone has worked so hard for this, and it proves once again the progress we’ve made with our latest package.”

In England, Bortoleto also spoke about the 2026 generation of race cars and the ongoing criticism from some of his fellow drivers.

The South American continued: “I don’t think we’ve lost the magic of the sport – we’re still driving through Copse at a bloody fast pace, at 280 km/h, and I have to lift off briefly there. It feels different to how it used to, when we could whizz through there in the winged cars.”

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“We’ve turned a new page with the 2026 cars. And if there are still people complaining about it, then I have to say – get used to it at last, because these are the rules we’ll be stuck with until 2030. I mean, are we going to spend the next three years whingeing about it or what?”

“That’s just what we’ve got; the cars are still fun, they’re just different from before. We have to adapt – that’s just how life goes.”