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Max Verstappen has revealed that he told the Red Bull team to keep an eye on Gabriel Bortoleto even before the rookie made his F1 debut in 2025. The Brazilian driver won the 2024 F2 championship and earned a promotion to the top series with Sauber.
Bortoleto has made a strong impression in his rookie F1 season with Sauber. The 21-year-old has scored 19 points so far and secured a career-best finish of P6 at the Hungarian GP.
During this season, Bortoleto has also become good friends with reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who has taken up somewhat of an unofficial mentor role to the rookie. The two also appeared on the Pelas Pistas podcast ahead of the Brazilian GP, where they discussed their relationship.
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During this, Verstappen revealed the advice he gave to the Red Bull team about Bortoleto, telling them to take notice of the driver before he joined Sauber in F1.
"I already said to the team before you [Bortoleto] even got to Formula 1, 'keep an eye on Gabi'. But now we are all here and let us just see how it evolves," said Verstappen.
Gabriel Bortoleto joined Fernando Alonso's management company A14 in 2022 when he was still racing in Formula Regional. After he won the 2023 F3 championship, Bortoleto was signed by the McLaren Driver Academy and was promoted to F2.
The youngster then won the F2 championship in his debut season in 2024, earned a promotion to F1 with Sauber, and left the McLaren academy in doing so. Now, he has been backed by Audi alongside Nico Hulkenberg to lead the Sauber team into its transition into the German outfit in 2026.
Max Verstappen discusses teaming up with Gabriel Bortoleto in the future
Max Verstappen has reflected on the possibility of teaming up with Gabriel Bortoleto in the future, saying he would be happy to see them both competing at the front of the field one day. The 28-year-old also said that he hopes to see the rookie in a competitive car in the near future.
When asked on the podcast, as mentioned above, if he could see himself becoming teammates with Bortoleto in the future, Verstappen said:
"First of all, I don’t even know how long I’m going to do myself, you know? I have a contract until 2028, but after that, nothing is agreed on or what. I don’t even know myself."
"So I hope, let’s say, in general, I just hope for Gabi, that he gets an opportunity within the next three, four years to be really competitive in the front and fight for podiums and then, if that’s in the same team, I mean, even better, because that means that we are both fighting for the best positions," he added.
As he mentioned, Max Verstappen has a valid contract with Red Bull till the end of the 2028 season. But numerous reports have suggested that the driver has only committed his short-term future to the Austrian side, meaning he could move elsewhere in 2027 and sign a new deal.
