Formula 1 presenter and former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe believes that if the Cadillac F1 team were to choose a 2025 rookie driver to be part of its driver line-up, the American outfit should opt for Gabriel Bortoleto.
Cadillac is set to join the F1 grid in 2026 as the 11th team, and while much has been going on behind the scenes at Silverstone and in Indiana, the General Motors-backed team is yet to announce its driver pairing for its debut season.
Although there has been a lot of talk about former Sauber driver and current Mercedes reserve Valtteri Bottas and former Red Bull driver Sergio Perez signing with the team, Hinchcliffe argued that Bortoleto could be a good option for Cadillac, should it decide to go for one of the current rookies on the grid.
“Bortoleto has been super impressive because that car is not great,” Hinchcliffe explained to The Red Flags Podcast. “And even when it’s good for a Sauber, it’s still not great.
“And Nico [Hulkenberg] is known as one of the best Saturday guys. Like that was kind of one of his things. And I think, I think Gabriel, I think he’s beating him right now, eight to six.
“So that’s really impressive. And he does that on Saturday, but then he backs it up on Sunday.
“Like he qualified up there in Austria, stayed there, had a great race in Hungary. So he’s been super impressive as well.
Former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe and Jolyon Palmer
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“And what I like about him is he’s just a kid who came from nothing, and he really just had to work hard and really, really put in the effort to get there. He had to win to keep going, and he did.
“I would say the most impressive [rookie] at this point, as of Hungary, I would say it’s probably Bortoleto.”
When asked to choose which rookie he would sign if he were part of Cadillac, he confirmed, “Of the four that are out there now? Yeah, probably [Bortoleto].”
Bortoleto currently sits 17th in the drivers’ standings with 14 points.
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