Sauber’s F1 rookies tackle Monaco’s pressure cooker as Bortoleto finds thrill and Hülkenberg keeps calm in Friday practice.
Gabriel Bortoleto finished 14th on the opening day of practice at the Monaco Grand Prix, but the Sauber F1 driver was all smiles after enjoying himself behind the wheel of his Formula 1 car through the winding streets of the Principality.
“It’s crazy! The adrenaline during a run is very high, it’s a big car on a small track, you have to be on the limit near the rails, you have to be quick, and it’s unreal. We’re still a bit behind the other teams, we need to look at the data to understand, but it wasn’t a bad day,” Bortoleto said.
The Brazilian admitted he deliberately left a margin in his driving: “It wasn’t a bad day, we made progress and it’s faster than anything else I’ve driven here. I’m still improving, no one’s at 100% until qualifying.”
“We want to put everything together in qualifying, but we don’t want to crash in FP1 and compromise FP2, or in FP3 and compromise qualifying. We have to be careful with everything we do and see how much risk we can take. But it was a good day for me and I’m hoping for a good qualifying tomorrow.”
Hülkenberg Calm and Consistent
For his part, Nico Hülkenberg ended the day in 16th: “Overall, it was a solid and trouble-free Friday. I felt quite comfortable in the car right from the start of FP1, which is especially important on a street circuit as tight as Monaco.”
“We found a good baseline setup, and now it’s about extracting the right insights from the data to fine-tune a few things overnight. As expected, the field is incredibly tight, so even small improvements can make a significant difference.”
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