Gabriel Bortoleto knows Kimi Antonelli better than almost any F1 driver on the grid. The Sauber rookie raced against his fellow class-of-2024 graduate in Formula 2 last year, and the two share a paddock generation that also includes Oliver Bearman and Isack Hadjar.
So when a reporter in Montreal asked Bortoleto the question every YouTube hot-take channel has been asking — is Antonelli operating at Max Verstappen level, and can he win the championship in his rookie year — the Brazilian's first instinct was to push back.
"Kimi is extremely talented," Bortoleto said. "Verstappen level — you know, you need to give him time. I don't think it's fair even to compare him to Max, or anyone to Max, because of his age, first of all, because of his time in Formula 1, and Max achieved so much already. So yeah, let's keep things down. And it's not up to me to judge anyone of my age as well. You know, I don't think it's fair. I am very close age to him, I raced against him. So I don't want to be talking about someone that I feel that I should be competing with."
That line — I should be competing with — is the most telling part. Bortoleto isn't dismissing Antonelli's level. He is openly refusing to be the messenger who hands the Italian a crown that none of his rivals in the same class want to hand him this early.
The numbers behind the question are stark. Antonelli leads the championship with three wins in a row, a 20-point gap over Mercedes teammate George Russell, and a statistical pull behind him that 20 of the previous 23 drivers in F1 history to win three races in a row went on to become world champion. The temptation to anoint him is everywhere.
Bortoleto's resistance to that narrative came with an acknowledgement of what Antonelli has done so far.
"Right now he has a good car. He's doing a good job," the Brazilian continued. "He's delivering an incredible start of season, you know, winning three races in a row. I'm happy for him because he shows the talent that our generation has — with Ollie, Isaac, me, and the other guys, you know, that maybe one or a year down or up. But yeah, it's just great to see someone young doing well, and hopefully we all get the opportunity to have a good car and be fighting for that."
The phrase that our generation has carries the strongest signal here. Bortoleto is reframing Antonelli's run not as a freak outlier comparable to a four-time champion, but as proof that the 2024-25 rookie wave — Antonelli, Bearman, Hadjar, Bortoleto himself — is a deep talent pool whose ceiling is still being defined.
For Bortoleto, the proof he wants is comparative. He raced Antonelli wheel-to-wheel in F2. He believes he should be on the same lap-time curve once Sauber gives him a car capable of fighting for the same finishing positions. The hopefully we all get the opportunity to have a good car line is the working-class-rookie answer to the question of whether Antonelli's rise is special or simply structural.
The Verstappen comparison is the question that defines Antonelli's season from the outside. The Brazilian's answer was to politely refuse to be the one who anchored it. Antonelli will be measured against Max Verstappen, the 2026 standings, and history's three-in-a-row statistic. From the cockpit of a fellow rookie, he is — for now — measured only as the kid driving the best car who is doing the job.
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*Originally published on [News Formula One](https://newsformula.one/article/bortoleto-antonelli-verstappen-comparison-not-fair-canada-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
