Max Verstappen welcomed as Audi teammate to Gabriel Bortoleto as sim racing friendship revealed
Thomas Maher
Gabriel Bortoleto has said he and Max Verstappen could be good teammates, if the Dutch driver ever decides to move to Audi…
The Brazilian rookie has explained how he and four-time F1 World Champion Max Verstappen have cultivated a friendship through a mutual love of Call of Duty and sim racing, and extended a warm welcome to joining him at Audi, if the four-time F1 World Champion ever fancied a different challenge.
Gabriel Bortoleto: Max Verstappen gives me corner tips in sim racing!
With four points finishes from the last six races, Bortoleto has become one of the stars of the F1 2025 season as he has found his feet in the series as a rookie driver.
The Brazilian driver has established a close friendship with four-time F1 World Champion Max Verstappen, and Bortoleto has opened up on how the pair enjoy some downtime together by way of playing computer games such as Call of Duty, or racing against each other on their home simulators.
Bortoleto has even benefited from Verstappen passing on some words of wisdom about how to tackle some corners, and the Sauber driver has revealed how the Dutchman generously helps him out, even without asking.
The friendship stems back to 2023, when Bortoleto was in Formula 3, and it has since developed into an easy friendship, despite the pair now being grid rivals in F1.
“Yeah, it was funny. We played some Call of Duty. That’s how we spend the days, right?” Bortoleto said at the Italian Grand Prix, when asked about a recent online stream in which he played some computer games with Verstappen.
“And it was good to just have fun and laugh a little bit,” he said, before joking about Verstappen’s command of the Portuguese language.
“You should ask him the words he knows! It’s very bad ones, so I cannot say it here. He loves to say them when it’s not live!”
Now, most of the way through his first season in Formula 1, Bortoleto said that he has learned quite a bit from Verstappen – whether that’s in tangible ways such as tips and tricks in sim racing, or just a chat in the paddock at an F1 Grand Prix.
“We drive a lot together in the sim and we practice a lot,” he said.
“I would say this is always helpful, tracks he already knows, tips he gives about corners, and things that I should be looking at. It’s always very good, the tips he gives to me.
“I mean, [he’s] a four-time world champion, so he achieved a lot in his career, and I’m super glad to have someone like him being very helpful.
“Because sometimes I don’t even ask, it’s coming from him. And obviously, you need to be curious, but it’s very nice to have someone like this. And he has zero interest at the end of the day. He’s not working with me in any sense and helping me a lot, so I’m grateful.”
Asked whether this means he feels the four-time F1 World Champion is mentoring him by way of “taking him under his wing”, Bortoleto said, “He started helping me when I was in Formula 3, and we became good friends, and I believe he likes me, probably!
“So that’s why. He wants to see me doing well in Formula 1. I always made it very clear that he’s, for me, the top guy in Formula 1. And I really look up to what he did and what he’s doing in Formula 1.
“So I think probably he likes it. I don’t know, you should probably ask him why he takes me under… I don’t know the answer. Again, probably because he likes me and I try, I show him that I’m really into simulators and stuff that he likes and that I love as well, and we do it together.”
But could the pair eventually end up as F1 teammates? Bortoleto is under contract to remain with Sauber as it morphs into the Audi factory team next year, and there’s little chance of him switching over to the Red Bull programme any time soon.
But, with Verstappen only having committed to Red Bull for F1 2026 as the Dutch driver keeps his options open for the future, despite being under contract until F1 2028, Bortoleto said Verstappen would always be welcome at Audi alongside him…
“Maybe he comes to Audi one day, I don’t know!” he laughed.
“I mean, as a friend and everything, we work very well together. He helps me a lot. I really believe he can be a very good teammate in the sense of, when we get a team and bring the team together, he didn’t win four titles because he was lucky.
“He won it because he was in a team that, when he got there, was not a world championship team, and then he built it up with them and made them win.
“So I believe maybe working together wouldn’t be a bad thing. But again, if he comes to Audi one day… I’m happy where I am. And I am very glad with the project we have.”
With Bortoleto having recently shown that F1 is starting to click for him, with his improvement in execution coinciding with Sauber’s own technical upgrades yielding performance results, team boss Jonathan Wheatley has been full of praise for his young charge.
“He’s continuing to mature,” he said.
“He’s got a thirst for knowledge. And I keep talking about this work ethic, but I mean, he really is putting everything into it, and he wants to learn everything he can.
“He’s wise beyond his years. You know, he handled the debrief brilliantly after a very frustrating race [at Zandvoort].
“The way he’s developing. I couldn’t ask more as a team principal, he’s doing everything that you want from a young driver, showing incre
dible maturity, and when the car’s capable, he delivers.”
