Verstappen: “I hope for a podium for Bortoleto in 2026”

The Dutchman is a great friend of the Audi driver. The Barcelona Shakedown highlighted that Mercedes and Ferrari are already ‘in world championship form’ at least in terms of reliability. Among the teams that had the most problems at Montmelò was Audi, but the R26 still put together 243 laps in the three days of testing in Catalonia. Project manager Mattia Binotto stated that many problems have arisen, but small ones, so he is not particularly worried about the problems encountered. Max Verstappen, during a question-and-response video session on Instagram in the company of his Red Bull boxing partner Isack Hadjar, responded as follows regarding who will get on the surprise podium in 2026: “I hope that neither I nor Isack are surprises, I think a podium from the Red Bull drivers is rather expected, I hope that the surprise on the podium in 2026 is Gabriel Bortoleto.” Verstappen and Bortoleto are very good friends and the Brazilian driver in his debut season in F1 at the wheel of Sauber put together 19 points resulting from five points finishes with sixth place in Hungary as the best result just ahead of Max Verstappen. The Brazilian’s performances have not gone unnoticed and his name is on the notebooks of several top teams. Bortoleto was included in McLaren’s youth program, but the Woking team released him to allow the Brazilian to accept the offer from Sauber-Audi.