Mattia Binotto has no regrets about Kimi Antonelli: “I have Bortoleto”
In an interview with Autosprint in the issue hitting newsstands on Tuesday, Mattia Binotto stated that he wasn’t disappointed not to have Kimi Antonelli on his team—the winner at Monza and the increasingly dominant leader of the world championship standings. “I have my own prodigy: Gabriel Bortoleto,” clarified the Team Principal of Audi Revolut F1.
“Italy is his second home, since he left Brazil at age twelve to train in karting. His talent is complete, and he could follow in Kimi’s footsteps, who was only able to shine once he had a great car,” added the engineer, who spent years at Ferrari in Maranello.
Binotto’s words are rooted in a long-standing history. It was he himself, in November 2024, as COO and CTO of Sauber, who strongly pushed for Bortoleto to join the team destined to become Audi: “Gabriel has already demonstrated in the junior categories that he has what it takes to become a winning driver. Together with Gabriel, we’ll shape a new era for the Four Rings in motorsport.” In short, it was a gamble built over time, not a last-minute fallback.
After all, Binotto has always had a clear vision for the Audi project’s trajectory. As early as October 2024, he had clearly laid out the path ahead during an interview with the BBC: “We won’t be climbing just any mountain—we’ll be climbing Everest. It will take several years, but our ambition is to be contending for the world championship by the end of 2030.” This timeframe by no means rules out the possibility that Bortoleto could be the driver called upon to reap those rewards.
In terms of the standings, however, the gap to close relative to Antonelli remains considerable today. Following his victory at Monza, the Mercedes driver leads the World Championship with a 76-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton, while Bortoleto must still wait for the Ingolstadt car to make the necessary leap in performance to allow him to reach his full potential. This is exactly the scenario Binotto foreshadowed in his comparison with Antonelli.
