Gabriel Bortoleto was born in Brazil in October 2004 and first drove a go-kart at the age of six. In 2012, he managed to win the Brazilian Open in the Mirim class and finish as the runner-up in the Brazilian and Paulista Championships. He stepped up to the Cadete class in 2014, finishing third in the Brazilian Championship and winning the Brazilian Open. By 2017 he had moved to Europe, basing himself in Italy, and began to compete in the OKJ class.
After a modest 2017 season, in 2018 he managed to finish third in the CIK-FIA World and European Championships and win the Swedish Karting Championship. After some average results in the OK class in 2019, he made the move to single-seater cars in 2020.
Bortoleto secured a seat with Prema in Italian F4, and he made a breakthrough in the season’s fourth round at Mugello, where he scored podiums in all three races, taking his first victory in the 11th race of the season. He picked up two more podiums in the following round at Monza, helping him to finish the year ranked fifth in the overall standings and fourth in the Rookies’ Championship.
He began to race in the Formula Regional European Championship in 2021, driving for Fernando Alonso’s team, and finished 15th in the standings, picking up his one podium at the Red Bull Ring. In 2022 he moved to the R-ace GP team and finished sixth in the standings with two wins. He also picked up a win in the Formula Regional Asian Championship in that year, in which he was also signed to Fernando Alonso’s management company.
He first tested an F3 car with Trident in the 2022 post-season test, before he was announced as one of the team’s drivers for the 2023 season. After finishing the Bahrain sprint race outside of the points, he picked up his first F3 win in the feature race. He also managed to win from pole position at the next feature race in Australia.
After a steady run of points finishes, he finished as the runner-up in four of eight races towards the end of the year, helping him to be crowned as the FIA F3 Champion after the final qualifying session of the year. After winning the F3 title in his rookie season, it was announced that he had signed with the McLaren Driver Development Programme, and at the time he said that he was “looking forward to continuing working on [his] development alongside a great team.”
In 2024 he signed to race in F2 with Invicta Racing, and he scored points in the first two races, before going on a four-race pointless streak. However, at Imola, he finished sixth in the sprint race, before securing his first F2 podium with a second-place finish in the feature race. Then at Monaco, he finished as the runner-up in the sprint race, before finishing eighth in the feature race. This means that after 10 races he sits fifth in the standings with 50 points.
