Marko gets 'I'll prove him wrong' response from rookie
F1 News
Entering the 2025 Formula One season, five rookies will be on the grid. While Gabriel Bortoleto didn't receive the worse grade from Red Bull top advisor Helmut Marko, he was not classified by him among the best either. The Brazilian hopes to show it to the Austrian what he is capable of.
Gabriel Bortoleto will begin his F1 journey with Sauber, after winning the F2 title the previous season. According to Helmut Marko, he is however only a B-tier talent. "He’s a very intelligent driver: he won the Formula 3 championship, but with only one win and he usually stays out of trouble. In Formula 2 he only managed two victories. He is a driver who brings the car home safely, has a good command of strategy and tyre management, but I don’t see that pure speed in him," the Austrian top advisor explained on Servus TV.
Bortoleto 'won against Red Bull talents'
The Brazilian youngster now wants to show Marko that he belongs to the top tier. "I've seen that, and I love challenges. And I think, hearing that from Helmut, he's a guy that has put a lot of talents in Formula 1, and has put a lot of wrong talents already in F1," he began to GPblog among others ahead of the Melbourne season opener.
He continued: "So you can see he got it right and wrong. And, hopefully, I will prove him wrong with time. But nothing I can say now on media that would change his mind, just my results on track. And I'm sure I'm going to prove him wrong at some point, and hopefully, he will admit this when I prove him wrong. But for now, I'm just focusing on doing my job and improving and doing the best I can."
While Marko questioned his performance despite winning back-to-back titles in the previous years, Bortoleto explained he earned those against Red Bull juniors. The previous season, he defeated Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar on the final race, however, the Frenchman could get off the line after stalling his car in Abu Dhabi during the feature race. "I'm proud of what I did in junior series, and I won in F2 and F3 against the Red Bull drivers he has. So all good for me," the Brazilian concluded.
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