The Brazilian did not hide his disappointment at being left out of the points zone, after having felt the car was competitive all weekend
In his last race in his debut season in , he went from the euphoria of seventh place on the starting grid for the Abu Dhabi GP, achieved on Saturday, to disappointment with 11th place in this Sunday’s race. The Brazilian did not hide his disappointment at being left out of the points zone, after having felt the car was competitive throughout the weekend.
“I’m not going to lie. It’s a little disappointing to have finished outside the points zone today. Unfortunately, we had difficulties with stability from the first lap and I think we didn’t make the most of the race as we should have”, lamented the Brazilian. “It’s a shame because the car was incredible yesterday and I really felt like we could have scored some points today.”
After starting seventh, repeating his best field in Formula 1, Bortoleto had problems with Sauber at the beginning and lost pace – and positions. The Formula 3 and Formula 2 champion finished the race in 12th position, but gained a place with the five-second penalty imposed on Oliver Bearman, from Haas.
The Brazilian was 19th in the general classification, with 19 points, while Sauber finished in ninth place among the ten teams, with 70 points – ahead of Alpine. Bortoleto highlighted the “good and valuable year” of learning, but was even happier for the transformation of Sauber into Audi and for abandoning the car used in this World Cup.
“The season is over, we won’t use this car again next year, thank God, because it’s difficult. We know that maybe we can put a (good) lap in the classification, but in the race the pace is always difficult”, said the driver in an interview with Band, predicting a more promising future.
“The season is over and I’m already looking forward to it, wanting to start working next year and, hopefully, fight for bigger things,” he said. “We will have a new car, new everything and, God willing, it will be a year of a lot of learning, a year in which I can put a lot of what I have learned now, go for it and have fun.”
*With information from Estadão Conteúdo
