Loading
Gabriel Bortoleto believes Audi’s hard work is finally translating into consistent Formula 1 results after he secured consecutive points finishes at the British and Belgian Grands Prix.
The team began the season with Bortoleto taking ninth at the Australian Grand Prix, but its progress was soon obscured by a run of misfortune and near misses. Three consecutive 11th-place finishes in Monaco, Barcelona and Austria left Audi slipping further behind its midfield rivals in the standings.
That pattern changed at Silverstone. Bortoleto gained three positions to record his best result of the season, then matched that performance at Spa-Francorchamps after reaching Q3 once again. His Belgian Grand Prix drive to eighth provided Audi with another clear indication that it can now fight consistently in the midfield.
“I’m extremely happy,” Bortoleto said after the race. “I think that’s everything we could achieve this weekend.”
He also highlighted the scale of the team effort, with more than 500 Audi employees travelling from Switzerland, Bicester and Neuburg to attend the event. “The team did an incredible job,” he added. “For sure, it was a great result.”
The result came four years after Audi first revealed its intention to enter Formula 1, giving the team an important marker of the progress made since then. As part of the wider key moments from the Belgian Grand Prix, Audi’s performance stood out as one of the weekend’s more significant midfield developments.
Bortoleto described the result as a major personal boost and expressed hope that it would have the same effect across the organisation.
“It’s incredible to have the feeling that we are being able to deliver results like this constantly now, and be fighting for points,” he said.
Both Audi drivers showed the pace to challenge the higher midfield runners, including Racing Bulls and Alpine. Nico Hulkenberg, however, narrowly missed out on points once again. He finished 13th after a late battle with Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson, having already been compromised by a sudden hydraulic leak in qualifying.
Reliability remains a central frustration for Hulkenberg. Aside from retirements in Miami, Barcelona and Great Britain, he has been close to the top 10 in every race this season without scoring.
Still, his assessment of Spa was encouraging: “The performance is there, the speed for the midfield battle is there. I think we were best of the rest together with the Racing Bulls, from what I can see, so that’s pretty positive and encouraging.”
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.