Gabriel Bortoleto refutes F1 misconception: 'Do you see Verstappen being slow?'

Gabriel Bortoleto has rejected the idea that F1's 2026 cars have made previously fast drivers slow, insisting the championship's leading names remain competitive because adapting is part of the job.

In doing so, the Audi driver, who has scored all 10 of the fledgling team's points this term, pushed back against suggestions that the new regulations require such a different driving style that they have reshaped the competitive order.

The new power units, which run on a near 50/50 split between internal combustion and electrical energy following the removal of the MGU-H, have prompted widespread discussion among drivers this season.

Max Verstappen has compared it to "Formula E on steroids." Lando Norris has called the racing "chaos," Esteban Ocon has spoken of being unable to drive the way he wants, and Oscar Piastri has compared the process to "rewiring your brain."

Bortoleto, however, insists any F1 driver should be able to adapt, even if it is unnatural or counterintuitive, as many of his peers have claimed.

And when asked whether a specific driving style is now required to be fast, the 21-year-old said he disliked the phrase itself.

"I don't think I changed my way of driving much," Bortoleto told media, including RacingNews365. "But I don't like the sentence 'driving style' because I don't believe that a Formula 1 driver should ever say that, because we should be able to adapt, even if it's not natural.

"But we should be able to adapt to any type of car and the way you need to drive; that's why we do what we do, and that's why we are the 22 drivers in the world doing Formula 1. So I think it's just a matter of what car you have and how you need to drive it.

"And I think from last year I didn't change much the way I drive, but obviously, you fine-tune a bit here and there; you know how the energy deploys out of some corners, so you know if you can push more the entry and you care about less on the exit because there's no energy being deployed there, or if you actually need to be a bit more careful on the entry because there's going to be a long straight and a lot of energy being deployed, so you need to change, like, last year was always constant, so you didn't have to do so."

'Different' corner by corner

The 2026 cars demand a more complex approach because of greater energy harvesting under braking and on corner entry, along with variable deployment through corners and down straights.

That means braking as late as possible and getting on the power as early as possible is not always the fastest way to complete a lap.

Some corners reward a more aggressive entry if there is no electrical deployment to exploit on the following straight. In contrast, others require more care on entry to maximise the exit, as is conventional in motorsport.

Bortoleto said that variation is not the same at every corner and used Spa-Francorchamps to illustrate his point.

"No. But again, it's not like this every corner; it's different," he said when asked whether the situation is so extreme that the traditional approach of slow-in, fast-out no longer works.

"If you want an example, I'm gonna give you a good example. So, out of T13 at Spa-Francorchamps [The Fagnes Chicane], we didn't have any deployment on the engine.

"So basically, if you just push a bit more in the corner, you could run a bit wider in Turn 12 and still go full throttle very early for [Turn] 13 because you don't have deployment and we have a lot of downforce; the car was not going to snap or lose the rear because you don't have enough power.

"So it's a different way of approaching. But again, I think motorsport shouldn't be about only one way of driving, or it's not, because we learned something in go-karting that we need to be doing the same thing for the rest of our lives.

"I think driving techniques need to be... My engineer is smiling because he keeps pushing me in that direction, and I think it's important that you are able to adapt to everything.

"And there are going to be times that I'm going to be frustrated because I'm not going to be able to do something, but that's the fun part of motorsport as well."

'It's still racing'

Bortoleto's comments come amid debate over whether energy management has become too dominant under the 2026 regulations.

The Audi driver argued that the new generation of cars has not removed the importance of driver quality, pointing to the continued form of Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Norris.

When queried as to whether fast drivers are still fast regardless, the Brazilian promptly replied: "Do you see Verstappen being slow?

"Do you see a seven-time world champion being slow this year? Do you see Leclerc being slow? I don't see them being slow. I still see them very competitive. So I wouldn't say fast drivers are slow.

"Actually, Lewis is a bit better than he was doing last year. Max is still performing like crazy, putting that car on top.

"Lando, the reigning world champion, is still quick when his thing [power unit and car] doesn't break, so..."

Hamilton, who endured a winless and podium-less 2025 campaign with Ferrari, has already taken a victory and five podiums this year and sits third in the championship on 159 points.

Verstappen, despite difficulties with the RB22, has taken two podiums and sits seventh with 91 points. Norris has remained quick when his MCL40 has been reliable.

When that final remark drew laughter from a journalist, Bortoleto added: "It's the truth... So I don't think we have seen slow drivers last year becoming quick, and the quick guys slow; it's still racing."