Gabriel Bortoleto said winning the 2024 Formula 2 World Championship in Abu Dhabi was “one of the best feelings of my life”.
Bortoleto finished second in the Feature race, behind race winner Joshua Durksen, to take the F2 title ahead of his rival Isack Hadjar.
Hadjar had stalled on the grid at the race start, ending his title aspirations in a heartbreaking finish to his F2 campaign.
However, for Bortoleto, the celebrations began for the Sauber Formula 1-bound racing driver as he reflected on his achievement after the race.
“Well, it’s one of the best feelings of my life,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“It has been a very long season, we have been through a lot of things since the beginning where we struggled a lot in Jeddah, Australia.
“Actually in Australia, [I had] a very big crash and the team never gave up, I never gave up as well and from that moment on I think we deserved every single point we achieved in this championship.
“We had luck but we also created our own luck, with our pace, with our work, all the extra hours we did in the sim, all the extra hours we had late nights working in simulations on new things for bringing the car in the right window for the new tracks that were coming up for me and for the team as well.
“My progression through this season has been the best progression I had in my entire life as a driver.
“I’ve grown up so much personally and professionally as well, I’ve learned so much, I met a lot of new people in my life that I’m super grateful to have them as well that helped me to achieve this championship and I’m super proud of it.”
Bortoleto says ‘it’s a privilege’ to join F2 and F3 winners club
After Hadjar’s misfortune, Bortoleto stormed into the lead of the Feature race before losing positions to polesitter Victor Martins and Durksen.
Bortoleto passed Martins towards the end but could not catch the Paraguayan racing driver as he came across the line in second place.
None of that mattered though as Bortoleto had done what he needed to do to become the F2 champion and join an illustrious club of drivers who had won the Formula 3/GP3 series, then the F2 series in back-to-back years – Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri.
The 20-year-old was asked after the race about what it meant to him to replicate the success of the former junior series champions – now F1 race winners.
He added: “Well, they’re all F1 race winners so for me it’s a privilege to be all around these names.
“They are drivers that I’ve always been, let’s say, inspired by when you see them in junior series and they were winning everything.
“Dominating the championships as rookies, surprising the F1 teams, getting their seats in F1, growing up, winning races in F1 and that’s obviously one of my targets is to represent my country in F1 and to win races and hopefully championships one day there.
“So yeah, it’s amazing to be around these names and to be one of the few people that managed to do this achievement.”
F2 champion ‘proud’ of Brazillian heritage
The Invicta Racing driver joins his fellow countryman, Felipe Drugovich, as a Brazillian champion of F2.
Speaking about what it means to represent his country and bring success to Brazil, Bortoleto said: “Well, I’m super proud of being Brazilian because as Brazilians nothing is easy for us.
“We come a long way from here, we go through a lot of things to achieve success, especially in this sport.
“It’s very expensive to Brazil to be able to afford a driver to race in Formula 3 and Formula 2 and one day to go to Formula 1.
“We are not going through a very good moment in the last years in Brazil, we’re trying to get better and better but it’s never easy.
“For me to be able to give them a little bit of happiness in this moment, it’s amazing because if I can be part of their Sunday morning when they wake up and they watch the TV and they see a Brazilian driver representing them in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, all around Europe as well, it’s an amazing feeling for me and for them as well.
“That’s why I wanted to talk in Portuguese after my win because I wanted to give them a message because there is a lot of Brazilians that, because it’s not easy for us in terms of education as well, they don’t speak in English.
“So, I wanted to communicate with them in Portuguese as well to give them the message I was feeling in the moment.”
The last Brazillian to compete in F1 was Pietro Fittipaldi in the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as Bortoleto will be the 33rd driver from Brazil to compete in the sport.
READ MORE: Gabriel Bortoleto takes F2 title as Joshua Durksen wins Abu Dhabi Feature race
