Jonathan Wheatley has admitted that Gabriel Bortoleto’s stage of maturity is the side of the rookie’s debut season in F1 that he has been “most shocked by”.
Bortoleto was one in every of various new arrivals on the grid this 12 months, having made the step up from his championship-winning F2 marketing campaign to hitch Kick Sauber within the prime echelon.
Since then the Brazilian has gone on to attain factors on 5 events – which included a career-best P6 in Hungary – whereas his partnership with veteran staff mate Nico Hulkenberg has up to now introduced residence a complete of 60 factors.
Sharing his ideas on Bortoleto’s rookie season in the course of the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix weekend, Wheatley – who joined Kick Sauber because the squad’s new Crew Principal in April – praised the 21-year-old for a way he has approached his first marketing campaign within the sport.
“I believe it’s the maturity that I’ve been probably the most shocked by,” stated Wheatley. “When you think about his age, the best way he handles issues – the frustration, the pure stuff you’d think about from a driver in his first season – he handles them with such maturity.
“I’ve talked earlier than about his work ethic; if he could be within the simulator, he’s within the simulator – if he could be on a simulator, he’s on a simulator. And I believe on prime of that, the best way he’s knitting his engineering staff round him – the best way they’re working collectively – is vastly encouraging as properly.
“And the ultimate piece within the puzzle for me is when he’s at a difficult circuit, he builds as much as it. Monaco, he constructed as much as it – his solely contact with the barrier was within the race. Similar in Baku, identical in Singapore.
“He simply has such a mature method, so I’m vastly inspired by his efficiency up to now.”
Coming into into the ultimate races of Bortoleto’s maiden F1 season, a lot of the main target for Kick Sauber might be on the tight midfield battle within the Teams’ Championship, with solely 12 factors protecting these positioned between sixth and ninth.
Pushed on whether or not he feels that climbing as much as that P6 spot – at present occupied by Racing Bulls – is possible, Wheatley responded: “We’re taking it a race at a time. Ayao [Komatsu, Team Principal at Haas] taught us a lesson a couple of races in the past. It is so shut. The margins are so shut.
“I really feel like I am at all times saying the identical factor, however it’s nip and tuck all the best way down the road, and it will come all the way down to who makes the fewest errors, I believe, on the finish of the day.
“However actually, I am loving our racing in the intervening time. I am loving coming into this aggressive setting the place the margins are so tight, and the calls are so shut. I’m simply having fun with the season.”
