Gabriel Bortoleto will be the 14th driver to race for Sauber in Melbourne: These drivers also made their Formula One debut for the Swiss team
Should nothing extraordinary happen, Gabriel Bortoleto will be the last driver to make his Formula One debut with Sauber in 2025. The reigning Formula 2 champion will start his first season alongside experienced Nico Hülkenberg before the team becomes an Audi works team from next year.
This marks the end of the era of the Swiss private team in Formula 1. In 1993, the team entered the premier class with Karl Wendlinger and JJ Lehto and had tried for many years with modest means to compete against the big manufacturers in the series – and especially at the beginning, repeatedly with notable successes.
For many drivers, Sauber was the top address in Formula One, including world champions such as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen.
The German had only competed in one race for the team in 2007, which at the time had even had a brief factory team phase under the BMW banner. Vettel stood in for the injured Robert Kubica in Indianapolis and, in eighth place, scored his first championship point on his debut.
Shortly afterwards, Vettel was the new regular driver at Toro Rosso and made the leap to Red Bull via them, where he won four consecutive world championship titles between 2010 and 2013.
But he is not the only one for whom Sauber has proved an ideal springboard into Formula One. Charles Leclerc also took his first steps as a race driver in Hinwil. The Monegasque driver impressed in 2018 and, after just one year, received a contract as a race driver at Ferrari, where he still drives today.
Leclerc is one of 14 Formula One drivers to have made their debut with Sauber – and Vettel is one of two Germans.
