DTM leader Mirko Bortolotti on his Formula 1 dream: why he voluntarily left Red Bull in 2010 after one year and what was true about the rumours as Massa’s replacement
Before Lamborghini works driver and DTM leader Mirko Bortolotti became one of the best GT3 drivers in the world, the Vienna-based Italian was even allowed to dream of a Formula 1 career. In 2009, Helmut Marko brought the 19-year-old into his Red Bull junior programme before he switched to the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2010.
But how close was Bortolotti, who was traded as a replacement after Felipe Massa’s Hungarian crash in 2009, really to a Formula 1 cockpit? “The most realistic thing, in retrospect, would have been at Red Bull, had I successfully continued my path there”, “Then I would probably have been given the chance of a Formula 1 cockpit.”
In the Red Bull junior programme, at least in his time, “they dealt with the drivers in the fairest way”, Bortolotti recalls. “For one or the other driver, it might not look like that because he didn’t get what he expected. That can quickly come across as unfair. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s been very fair. “
Bortolotti: Marko’s Red Bull programme “the fairest “
Bortolotti also puts this down to Marko, for whom only performance counts. “You know where you stand,” Bortolotti said. “I prefer someone to tell me to my face what they think of me. And gives clear guidelines: ‘This and this must happen, then we can do this and this.’ That’s why I count Helmut among the people who are tough as nails. But it’s also a tough business. “
But how was Bortolotti discovered in the first place? In 2008, the Trento-born youngster was given a Ferrari Formula 1 test as a reward for his title in the Italian Formula 3 Championship and, in a complete surprise, beat the lap record at Fiorano.
This also attracted Marko’s interest, who quickly brought the talented driver on board. But why did Bortolotti voluntarily decide against staying with Red Bull at the end of 2009 after finishing fourth in Formula 2?
Why Bortolotti moved from Red Bull to Ferrari in 2010
“I decided not to continue with Red Bull but to move to the Ferrari academy because Red Bull would have offered me another year in Formula 2 in 2010,” Bortolotti goes into detail. “Ferrari was the better option on paper at the time, but it didn’t turn out that way.”
In the GP3 series, Bortolotti scored twice as many points as his two Addax teammates combined in 2010, but did not finish higher than eleventh in the championship. And was dropped by Ferrari at the end of the year. “With Ferrari, the chance was slim from the start,” says Bortolotti in retrospect.
The following year he tried his luck a second time – but this time on his own – in Formula 2 and won the title. The reward was a Formula 1 test in the Williams after the season finale. “It was already clear to me before the Abu Dhabi test in 2011 that this would in all likelihood be the last Formula 1 test,” said Bortolotti. “You have to be realistic in life. “
How big was the chance for Massa’s cockpit really in 2009?
It was a “pure price test for winning the title” – “nothing more, nothing less”. And so Bortolotti sat in a current Formula 1 racing car and was only marginally slower than the test driver at the time, Valtteri Bottas, but he was left with no prospects. And after his Formula dream was dashed, he made a career in GT3 racing.
But what was really true about the rumours in 2009 that he was to replace Massa in the Ferrari in Formula 1? “There was a lot of speculation at the time that I was to take over Felipe’s cockpit,” Bortolotti himself knows.
“But firstly, that was not the case because I was under contract with Red Bull. Secondly, I was never contacted by Ferrari to drive a Formula 1 race, although the test in November 2008 was very positive,” he speaks plainly. The contract was then awarded to the hapless Luca Badoer, who was replaced shortly afterwards by the equally hapless Giancarlo Fisichella as Kimi Räikkönen’s team-mate.