Ask Mattia Binotto to name the driver on today’s Formula 1 grid who reminds him of Michael Schumacher, and his answer is one word: Gabriel.
The Audi F1 chief worked at Ferrari through Schumacher’s most dominant years, and he did not hesitate when the question was put to him in a recent interview.
“Gabriel. For his work ethic and for being a person with great human sensitivity,” Binotto said, in comments carried by Motorsport Week.
The comparison is deliberately framed around character rather than lap time. What made Schumacher exceptional, in Binotto’s telling, was never talent alone.
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“His work ethic. Michael is a person with great values in terms of hard work, professionalism, commitment, dedication, motivation, and passion,” Binotto said.
“Talent is necessary, but it’s not enough. You need more.”
What Binotto saw in Schumacher, and sees again
Binotto pushed the parallel into personality, describing a side of Schumacher that outsiders rarely got to see.
“He cared about the person, the individual. Behind the cold, mathematical German you could see from the outside, there’s a man who was very attentive to human sensitivity.”
Bortoleto: ‘I hadn’t even been born’
Bortoleto is 21 and never saw Schumacher race live. He told Motorsport Week the comparison, and Binotto’s storytelling around it, had rewired his view of the German.
“Michael became an idol of mine because of him. He always talks about him,” Bortoleto said of Binotto.
“I hadn’t even been born yet when he won everything. Just yesterday we were talking about him, about how he treated the team.”
Ten of Audi’s 12 points
The endorsement lands in the middle of a season in which Bortoleto, in his second F1 campaign and Audi’s inaugural year as a works team, is comfortably out-scoring the experienced Nico Hulkenberg.
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Across the first 11 rounds, the Brazilian had picked up 10 of Audi’s 12 points, Motorsport Week reported, leaving him 14th in the drivers’ standings, eight points adrift of Haas rookie Oliver Bearman. Hulkenberg, in the same span, had two points.
His high point so far is eighth at the Belgian Grand Prix, where he qualified ninth on a circuit Audi had expected to struggle on and moved up a place at the start after Lando Norris took a grid penalty.
Bortoleto has signed a long-term Audi contract with no exit clauses, and the project’s horizon is being set far beyond the current championship.
“Mattia is always talking about 2030. So let’s put it that way. It’s a project we really believe in,” Bortoleto said.
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