Bortoleto: “Shanghai is similar to some challenges we faced in Bahrain in testing”

The first Sprint Race arrives

A few days after the debut of Audi in Formula 1, with the House of the Four Circles finishing the first race in its history immediately in the points with Gabriel Bortoleto, the time has come for the German team to reconfirm itself for the next test. Already this weekend, the first of the 2026 championship which includes the Sprint Race, the team will also be hunting for the top-10 in Chinaon the circuit of Shanghai.

Shanghai and Sakhir

A goal that the Brazilian has already set himself Bortoletoprotagonist of a more than positive performance at Albert Park, where he crossed the finish line in 9th place: “Melbourne has been a really encouraging start to the season – he declared – scoring points in our debut race was something very special and a great moment for everyone who worked hard on this project. At the same time, let’s keep our feet on the ground: it was only the first of many races ahead of usand there is still a lot to learn and understand about our car. Looking at the circuit layout, Shanghai is much closer to some of the challenges we faced in Bahrain during the pre-seasonso we can hope to use some of the lessons learned to get an advantage for the only free practice session we will have. We will have to work hard and get off to a good start, because we know how competitive the midfield is at this stage.”

Anyone who shows up in Shanghai even more ‘hungry’ is Nico Hülkenberg. In fact, the German did not participate in the last race due to a technical problem that forced him to pit, with the Chinese GP which will therefore see him start from the starting grid for the first time in this championship: “A new weekend, a new race – the beauty of the compact F1 calendar is that you don’t have to wait too long for another opportunity to get in the car and drive. I don’t want to focus on the disappointment of Melbourne, but rather on the positives of that event: we were competitive with both cars in every session, and this is something that gives us confidence ahead of China. Shanghai is a very different track to Melbourne, and it will be interesting to see how these cars perform on the long straights we have this weekend. We will only have one free practice session before sprint qualifying, so we will need to be ready from the first lap to ensure we are among the leaders of the middle group right from the start.”