Racing Roots

I WAS BORN ON October 14, 2004, in São Paulo, Brazil - a city that never slows down, where ambition is part of the air you breathe. My childhood was built around speed; by six years old I was already karting, chasing something I couldn't yet name but that I felt every time I touched the steering wheel.

The goal was simple: be faster today than I was yesterday. My father, Lincoln - an entrepreneur who built one of Brazil's largest internet service providers before becoming a major force in national motorsport due to our passion, as owner of Veloci Group running championships like Stock Car Brasil, TCR, FIA F4, and others - understood competition from the inside. And my brother, Enzo, who started all the motorsport life in our family, was the one who first pulled me toward a kart. That early push changed everything.

From 2011 to 2019, I worked my way through Brazilian and European karting - from local championships in São Paulo to the highest international stages. My best karting year was 2018: I finished third in both the CIK-FIA European and World Championships in OK-Junior, and was runner-up in the WSK Super Master Series and the Andrea Margutti Trophy. They weren't titles, but they confirmed I could compete at the front against the best juniors in the world.

In karting you learn very quickly that results don't lie. Third in the European and World Championships told me I was close - but close isn't enough. That feeling stayed with me for years.

By 2020, at age 15, I entered Italian F4 with Prema - my first real step into formula cars. Podiums at Mugello and Monza in that debut season showed me the transition was working.

Then came two seasons in the Formula Regional European Championship with FA Racing and R-ace GP, where I developed my understanding of aerodynamic cars and proper race craft at a higher level.

In 2023, I moved to FIA Formula 3 with Trident - and won the championship in my rookie year.

With Trident, I had one objective after the first weekend: lead the championship and don't give it back. I don't think I'm someone who responds well to chasing - I prefer to be the one being chased.

Then came F2 with Invicta Racing in 2024. And Monza.

Qualifying issues put me last on the grid for the feature race. I won it - the first driver in Formula 2 history to win from last place on the grid. By Abu Dhabi, I was F2 Champion, in my rookie year.

Starting last at Monza and winning - I don't think I fully processed it until the cool-down lap. It wasn't luck. It was every race I'd ever run, compressed into one afternoon.

I visited Monaco for the first time as a child, with my family. I remember standing at the barriers near the tunnel, looking at the circuit - the angles, the walls, how unforgiving everything looked. I didn't say much. I just filed it away.

Monaco is a circuit that doesn't pretend to be safe. The barriers are close; the consequences are immediate. As a kid watching it, I didn't think 'I want to live here.' I thought: 'I want to be good enough to race here.' The living part came later.

Monaco is a city that takes motorsport seriously in a way that's different from anywhere else. People here understand what it means - not just as a spectacle, but as a discipline. For a driver, that context matters.

I won't pretend the place doesn't have a certain pull. But what brought me here wasn't the scenery - it was the work that made this address possible.

I am proud to be the first Brazilian to race as a full-season Formula 1 driver since Felipe Massa - carrying the colors and passion of Brazil with me wherever I race.

Brazil will always define how I compete: the hunger, the refusal to accept that something is impossible, the belief that you fight until the checkered flag.

The road from São Paulo to Monaco isn't just kilometers. It's every early morning, every difficult race, every moment of doubt you push through anyway. I'm proud of that road. And I'm not close to done driving it.

By Gabriel Bortoleto