Gabriel Bortoleto is expecting to lose positions at lights out in Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix, unless he takes a “mega start” while everyone else falters.
Bortoleto and team-mate Nico Hulkenberg lost four spots each at the start of the sprint in Montreal, highlighting an arguably worrying trend for Audi and its very first F1 power unit.
“It’s not worrying,” the Brazilian countered. “We know what we have for now and we know what we need to improve.
“Most likely we’re going to lose positions again tomorrow, unless everyone behind me fucks it up at the start and I do a mega start. It’s true! What can I do?
“I’m not going to lie, be the optimistic here and then tomorrow we lose positions. It’s something we are working on, it’s clear, it’s not pointing fingers, it’s just a problem we have that we need to work [on].”
Audi’s problems are not limited to getaways, with Q3 eluding the team again in the main qualifying session as Hulkenberg qualified 11th for the sixth time in eight sessions this year while Bortoleto took 13th; they ended up 0.029s and 0.214s away from the Q3 cut-off point respectively.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team
Photo by: Jordan McKean / LAT Images via Getty Images
“To be honest, very unhappy with the session, unhappy with the balance, with how I was driving,” Bortoleto lamented. “I don’t think we maximised everything we had today, that’s the truth. Just sliding all over the place, felt like driving on ice.
“Yesterday I was much more happy with the balance, with the driveability of the engine, and everything felt much more smooth, and today it was just sideways everywhere and I didn’t have confidence to brake, and then downshifts were extremely harsh – just difficult.”
Bortoleto labelled Audi’s struggles as powertrain-related more than chassis-related.
“We are suffering a lot with power unit driveability, with power, that we need to work and improve,” he added.
“We are trying, we are bringing things, update on software, trying to make it better, but some stuff works, some stuff didn’t and we learn from them.”
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