Gabriel Bortoleto makes $2 million a year. Max Verstappen makes $70 million. On paper, the gap between the two Formula 1 drivers is a chasm. Off the track, however, the 21-year-old Brazilian from Osasco is closing it faster than anyone expected.
Days before Audi unveiled the R26 at a launch event in Berlin, Bortoleto announced Mercado Libre as his latest personal sponsor, adding Latin America’s largest e-commerce company to a portfolio that already includes Porto Seguro, Motorola, KitKat, Banco de Brasília, and Snapdragon. Porto Seguro renewed for three years in October. For brands chasing the Brazilian market, Bortoleto is becoming the most efficient investment in the paddock.
From Kart to Grid in Record Time
Bortoleto’s trajectory is unusually compressed. He started karting at seven, won the FIA Formula 3 title in 2023, and followed it with the FIA Formula 2 championship in 2024 — back-to-back feeder series crowns that placed him in rare company.
McLaren signed him to its driver academy in 2023. By 2025, he was on the grid with Sauber, making Q2 on debut in Melbourne and scoring his first points with eighth in Austria. He finished with 19 points and a reputation for racecraft that outstripped his machinery.
The Salary Pyramid
F1’s pay structure reflects the sport’s winner-take-most economics. Verstappen and Hamilton, who hold 11 world titles between them, sit at the summit. Below them, Charles Leclerc and George Russell earn $34 million each, while Lando Norris takes $30 million. Fernando Alonso, still racing at 44, commands $20 million on reputation and longevity alone.
At the base, rookies and sophomores operate on a different scale. Bortoleto and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli each earn $2 million. Oliver Bearman at Haas takes $1 million. The grid’s newest arrivals, Franco Colapinto and Arvid Lindblad, earn between $500,000 and $1 million — salaries that come bundled with global visibility worth multiples of the paycheck.
Where the Real Money Lives
The salary figures, compiled by RacingNews365, tell only part of the story. Personal sponsorships, performance bonuses, and image rights often double or triple a driver’s income. For a young driver like Bortoleto, commercial value can grow faster than the contract — especially when the driver represents a country of 210 million people that has been starved of F1 representation since Massa’s retirement in 2017.
The Audi Factor
Bortoleto’s commercial upside is amplified by his team’s transformation. Audi officially took over Sauber on January 1, bringing its own power unit and a stated ambition to fight for the championship by 2030. The R26, unveiled in Berlin in a titanium-and-lava-red livery, completed 851 laps of pre-season testing across Barcelona and Bahrain.
For Bortoleto, the marriage of a rising personal brand with a manufacturer debut creates a commercial multiplier few drivers at his salary level enjoy. When the lights go out in Melbourne on March 8, the Brazilian will be the lowest-paid driver on the grid. He may also be its fastest-growing brand.