Gabriel Bortoleto, Fernando Alonso, Silverstone, 2025

Fernando Alonso has praised the performance of Sauber rookie driver Gabriel Bortoleto over the first half of the 2025 F1 season, hailing him as the “best driver of this generation”.

Bortoleto is racing his first season in the world championship with Sauber alongside veteran team mate Nico Hulkenberg and is contracted to race with the team into 2026 as they transition into the Audi factory team.

The 20-year-old arrived in Formula 1 following from back-to-back championship titles in Formula 3 in 2023 and then the F2 championship in 2024, defeating Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar in the final round in Abu Dhabi. Bortoleto is also signed to the A14 Management driver management company, founded by Alonso and his business partners Albert Resclosa and Alberto Fernandez.

After the first 12 grands prix of his F1 career, Bortoleto sits 19th in the championship standings on four points. Asked how he viewed the rookie’s performance over the first half of the season, Alonso said: “very good, but I’m not surprised”.

“In Abu Dhabi [in Formula 2], I thought that he was the best of this generation,” Alonso explained to media including RaceFans.

“He won Formula 3 as a rookie, he won Formula 2 as a rookie. No testing with older version of cars, no TPC [Testing with Previous Cars] programmes, no nothing. Coming to Formula 1 and still delivering an incredible job… some others may have better packages and things like that, maybe some others will achieve success before he does, but eventually over the long term he will always come out as the best of this generation. The proof was when the cars were all the same in the previous categories.

“Now even with a team that was struggling last year, I think between him and Nico they’ve managed to bring new motivation and the team is also is improving. So far, it’s an incredible job what he’s doing… but he’s still behind me…”

Alonso fought his company’s client on track in the closing stages of last month’s Austrian Grand Prix, with Bortoleto unable to find a way past the Aston Martin driver despite the benefit of DRS for the final laps. Bortoleto’s hopes of challenging on the final lap were scuppered when the pair were forced to yield for race leader Lando Norris, but he still secured his first world championship points by finishing eighth behind Alonso.

“It was good,” Alonso said of their battle. “I was lucky there, with the blue flags.

“I think without the blue flags I had no chance to keep him behind for another two or three corners – that was my maximum ‘life’ available, there. And then with the blue flags, I gained that extra half-a-lap. And then also thanks to the blue flag, it was the final lap of the race and we saw the chequered flag, so it was a good combination for me.

“But the fight was good. A couple of corners side-by-side, always with respect. We’ve driven a couple of times already like that in go-karts and in simulators when we do sessions together and things like that, so it was a replica of that. This time I crossed the line first, so that gives me some satisfaction.”

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