Bernie Ecclestone has tossed a grenade into Ferrari’s long-term driver planning, urging the Scuderia to look to Gabriel Bortoleto when Lewis Hamilton’s time in red is up.
The 94-year-old former F1 boss, who’s been close to Brazil’s racing scene for decades, told Blick that Bortoleto’s form at Sauber “should really wake Ferrari up now,” adding the “next driver question for the Italians needs to be resolved with the Brazilian.” Ecclestone even admitted he helped open the door to F1 for the São Paulo native, calling the rookie “worth his weight in gold.”
It’s not a random shout. Bortoleto arrived this year with an F3/F2 title double in his pocket (2023/24) and has looked composed alongside Nico Hülkenberg at the Sauber outfit that’s trending toward Audi. Points in three of the last four races have underlined the point: he’s tidy, quick, and rarely flustered. Fernando Alonso, who manages him, didn’t hold back in Hungary either, anointing Bortoleto “the best rookie of this generation” and arguing he’d be splashed across headlines if he were British. “What he does is exceptional,” Alonso said.
Ferrari, meanwhile, has bigger fires to handle than its 2027 driver lineup. Hamilton’s big move hasn’t paid off yet. Fourteen starts, no podium, and a bruising Budapest where he qualified 12th while Charles Leclerc took Ferrari’s first pole of the season. The seven-time champion was brutally hard on himself—“useless,” his word—before hinting at turbulence behind the scenes: “There’s a lot going on in the background that’s not great.”
Team principal Fred Vasseur has tried to lower the temperature. He suggested Hamilton “sometimes exaggerates the problems he sees in the car,” stressing that in Hungary the gap in Q2 to Leclerc—who went on to pole—was only a tenth. Vasseur’s approach is clear: keep Hamilton calm, keep the team focused. “We solve the problems step by step,” he said, noting tiny losses, like half a tenth under braking, can flip a weekend.
Contractually, Hamilton is believed to be tied to Ferrari through 2026, with reports in Italy indicating an option that could carry him to 2027. That complicates the fantasy-market chatter. Ecclestone, though, went further, warning Hamilton risks “cheating himself” by continuing past the point of front-running competitiveness—language that will make headlines in Maranello whether they like it or not.
Does Ferrari need to move now? No. But if the Scuderia is mapping life after Hamilton, Bortoleto’s blend of speed, maturity and points-scoring stealth makes him a very Ferrari kind of bet. Consider this the first public nudge to put a Brazilian name on the long list—one that’s getting louder every weekend he keeps punching above Sauber’s weight.
