He walks previous F1.com as a person on a mission, his physique language showing assured and his eyes laser targeted, adopted just a few moments later by Hulkenberg, who shares some laughs with Haas mechanics seeing him in one other race swimsuit after two seasons with the staff.
Weaving his approach between cargo containers sure for the primary check and races of subsequent season, and the worldwide photographers nonetheless on the town, Bortoleto quickly disappears down a slender hall taking him the again of the Sauber storage and the automobile he might be driving.
ANALYSIS: Why Sauber selected to go along with Bortoleto and youth reasonably than Bottas and expertise
Ten minutes out, Bortoleto adopts full focus mode, slotting in a set of completely moulded earplugs, inserting a fireproof balaclava over his head and popping on a placing yellow, inexperienced and blue helmet – harking back to late, nice nationwide hero Ayrton Senna’s.
0900 – Getting all the way down to enterprise
Because the clock strikes 9 and the inexperienced mild switches on on the finish of the pit lane, Bortoleto and the remainder of the attending drivers hit the observe and begin racking up some priceless mileage.
The outfit’s devoted ‘younger driver’ for the check (i.e. somebody who has competed in two or fewer Grands Prix), Bortoleto is given entry to the identical Pirelli tyre compounds used over the Abu Dhabi race weekend – two units of C3s, 4 units of C4s and two units of C5s.
That differs significantly to Hulkenberg’s programme, with the skilled German as an alternative sampling the homologated variations of Pirelli’s 2025 tyres, which embrace a brand new ultra-soft C6 compound to broaden the producer’s already complete vary.
