IN NUMBERS: How Kick Sauber signing Bortoleto’s F2 and F3 career compares to Leclerc, Russell and Piastri

Gabriel Bortoleto has been announced as the latest rookie set to make the step up to Formula 1 in 2025, with the Brazilian having signed to race alongside the experienced Nico Hulkenberg at Sauber.

However, before his F1 journey begins, Bortoleto will be focused on trying to claim the 2024 F2 championship. The 20-year-old currently leads the standings on 169.5 points, giving him an advantage of just 4.5 points over nearest challenger Isack Hadjar ahead of the final two rounds of the season.

READ MORE: ‘The plan was always to be together’ – Bortoleto on his Sauber arrival, learning from Alonso and the support from Brazil

If he wins the title, Bortoleto would follow in the footsteps of Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri in having clinched both the Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships in his debut seasons in both series. But how does the future Sauber driver’s career in these categories compare to those famous names? We’ve delved into the numbers to find out…

Charles Leclerc

Formula 3 champion in 2016 (18 races): Three wins (16.7%) / Eight podiums (44.4%) / Four pole positions (22.2%) / 202 points

Formula 2 champion in 2017 (22 races): Seven wins (31.8%) / 10 podiums (45.5%) / Eight pole positions (36.4%) / 282 points

Leclerc was the first of our line-up to seal the Formula 3 championship – then known as GP3 – in his debut outing back in 2016. Racing for the ART Grand Prix team, the Monegasque won the opening race of the season in Barcelona before taking a further two victories en route to the title, which he claimed with a 25-point advantage over team mate Alex Albon.

For the following campaign Leclerc progressed to Formula 2 with Prema Racing and a more dominant performance followed, with the youngster racking up seven wins as well as an impressive eight pole positions, which gives him the highest win and pole-scoring percentage in F2 from our list of drivers.

After winning the title with three races to spare, the Ferrari-backed Leclerc earned himself a promotion to F1 with Sauber in 2018 before replacing Kimi Raikkonen at the Scuderia in 2019, where he has continued to add further accolades to his name.

George Russell

Formula 3 champion in 2017 (15 races): Four wins (26.7%) / Seven podiums (46.7%) / Four pole positions (26.7%) / 220 points

Formula 2 champion in 2018 (24 races): Seven wins (29.2%) / 11 podiums (45.8%) / Five pole positions (20.8%) / 287 points

Leclerc's title-winning successor in both categories was Russell, the Briton having made his debut in Formula 3 (under its GP3 guise) with ART Grand Prix in 2017. Statistically Russell enjoyed a stronger F3 championship-winning campaign than Leclerc, Piastri and Bortoleto, with his percentage of wins, podiums and pole positions scoring highest of all. He also ended the year 79 points clear of second-placed Jack Aitken in the standings.

READ MORE: Russell declares Antonelli is ‘destined to be a Formula 1 driver’ as youngster reminds him of his own journey

Russell’s next step on the ladder was F2, where he continued to drive for ART Grand Prix in 2018. While the first race of the season was won by a certain Lando Norris, Russell bounced back to triumph in the Sprint Race at Round 2 and went on to notch up a total of seven victories, helping him to beat Norris and Albon to the title.

This trio all progressed to the top tier in 2019, with Russell joining Williams for what turned out to be a three-year stint. He went on to make the step up to Mercedes in 2022 and earned his debut F1 win later that season.

Oscar Piastri

Formula 3 champion in 2020 (18 races): Two wins (11.1%) / Six podiums (33.3%) / No pole positions (0%) / 164 points

Formula 2 champion in 2021 (23 races): Six wins (26.1%) / 11 podiums (47.8%) / Five pole positions (21.7%) / 252.5 points

The most recent driver to join the back-to-back junior titles club was Piastri. After arriving into Formula 3 with Prema Racing in 2020 – a campaign that faced a delayed start owing to the COVID-19 pandemic – Piastri took victory in the season-opening race in Spielberg. It proved be a tightly-fought year, but the Australian just beat rivals Theo Pourchaire and Logan Sargeant to the championship by three and four points respectively.

Come 2021, Piastri headed to Formula 2 – again with Prema Racing – and kicked things off by winning the second Sprint Race at Round 1 in Bahrain. While he had to wait until Round 5 to stand on the top step of the podium again, the driver from Melbourne became increasingly dominant as the season progressed and surged to the title with a 60.5-point lead over Robert Shwartzman.

CHAMPIONS CLUB: How Norris and Piastri can join an exclusive group of title-winning McLaren drivers

Unlike Leclerc and Russell, Piastri did not make the automatic step up to Formula 1 and instead became a reserve driver for Alpine in 2022. But after a well-known dispute over his services for 2023, he ultimately made his F1 debut with McLaren and has since become a race winner.

Gabriel Bortoleto

Formula 3 champion in 2023 (18 races): Two wins (11.1%) / Six podiums (33.3%) / One pole position (5.6%) / 164 points

Formula 2 2024 season so far (24 races): Two wins (8.3%) / Five podiums (20.8%) / Two pole positions (8.3%) / 169.5 points

Three years on from Piastri triumphing on his Formula 3 debut, Bortoleto joined the exclusive club of drivers to achieve this – and with strikingly similar results to the Australian. Like Piastri, Bortoleto took two wins, six podiums and 164 points across 18 races on his way to the championship, though the Trident driver added an accolade that Piastri missed by scoring a pole position and ended the campaign 45 points ahead of Zak O’Sullivan.

READ MORE: ‘A fantastic, high-potential driver’ – Binotto explains the ‘no-brainer’ decision to sign Bortoleto

While his F1 future with Sauber is already confirmed, the question remains over whether Bortoleto can follow this feat by also taking the F2 crown in his first season. In a year that has so far witnessed 16 different drivers score wins across 24 races, the 20-year-old’s winning percentage would remain lower than Leclerc’s, Russell’s and Piastri’s even if he proves victorious in all four remaining races.

Can he make his Formula 1 debut all the sweeter by arriving with those back-to-back debut titles under his belt? We’ll have to wait and see…

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