Gabriel Bortoleto lands 'new job' in comical Audi Spanish GP joke

Audi racing director Allan McNish has joked that Gabriel Bortoleto now has a "new job" as a Pirelli tyre tester after the Brazilian ran an extraordinarily long stint in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Bortoleto's job in Madrid was to keep the cars behind him occupied while team-mate Nico Hulkenberg worked his way into the top 10, with the 21-year-old staying out lap after lap on the same set of tyres.

The plan worked. Hulkenberg took the final point in 10th, a lap down on race winner Kimi Antonelli, whilst Bortoleto crossed the line 13th, three places behind his team-mate.

It lifts Audi to 17 points and eighth in the constructors' standings, one adrift of Haas.

Asked if using Bortoleto to help Hulkenberg was considered, McNish told select media, including RacingNews365: "No, not necessarily using, in terms of clearly the strategy was for that.

"It wasn't necessarily using him to block. That's not the game that we play, and I think you saw with Bortoleto, when Colapinto had a run, it was free and open on the left-hand side.

"There was nothing there. But certainly both cars work together, and, you know, he's actually got a new job. He's on endurance development for Pirelli now to see whether they can do two race distances, not just one, together.

"But in terms of both the cars and the strategy and working as one unit, then without doubt, then we lent on that."

Audi recognise upgrade importance in tense midfield fight

McNish was rather less playful about the state of the car itself, pointing out that Audi's most recent significant package arrived in Austria and that rivals have since moved on.

He singled out Pierre Gasly's race pace in Madrid and the Frenchman's Monza pole as evidence of how quickly the midfield order is shifting.

Discussing the need for upgrades in the midfield fight, McNish added: "Obviously, other teams have brought upgrades in different areas at different times. Ours was in Austria, which was the last time.

"We had some small details since then, but in reality, it was Austria, and we do need to keep pace, especially as you can see some of the race pace of, like, Gasly, for example, was very strong [in Madrid], and also his pole position in Monza was bloody impressive.

"But from that perspective, we do need to start to bring things to the car to be able to keep the position. I can't tell you any more than that."