F1 star suffers Canadian GP nightmare as passport and computer stolen by thieves
Formula 1 star Gabriel Bortoleto is chasing his first points of the season in Montreal but was hit by significant disruption when having dinner in Switzerland days before the GP
Formula 1 star Gabriel Bortoleto saw his preparations for the Canadian Grand Prix disrupted by a theft which deprived him of his passport. The thieves are understood to have struck when he was in Switzerland in the lead-up to the race, with a computer also stolen.
Bortoleto, 20, is in his first season as an F1 driver. He joined Sauber ahead of the 2025 season and has yet to score a point, but a 12th place finish in Spain in May was his best result to date.
The youngster is still able to take part in Canada, but it was touch-and-go-for a while. Thieves broke into his car and stole documents, some of which have been recovered, but he was forced to travel to Canada with a second passport as he aimed to minimise the disruption.
'I had gone to dinner one day in Switzerland and they ended up opening the car and taking my backpack," Bortoleto told Brazilian media. "I had my passports, everything inside, my computer, all my running gear,' Bortoleto described.
"It was chaos, but we managed to find the guy. Everything worked out in the end, I have my passports. We didn't find everything, but we did find some things,"
While Bortoleto is still waiting for his first point of the season, team-mate Nico Hulkenberg impressed with a fifth-place finish in Spain. The German now sits 11th in the drivers' standings wit 16 points, having opened the season with seventh place at the Australian Grand Prix.
Last year, Sauber were represented at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit by Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, with both finishing outside the points in Canada. The 2024 race was won by eventual world champion Max Verstappen, with Lando Norris and George Russell completing the podium.
'It's a street circuit, so I think that always makes the weekend a little bit more competitive – I don't know if that's the right word. I think it makes mistakes a little bit less acceptable,' Bortoleto told reporters ahead of the 2025 race in Montreal.
This year's Canadian Grand Prix will also see Lance Stroll return to action after missing out in Barcelona. The Aston Martin driver withdrew from the Spanish Grand Prix after qualifying, and has undergone a medical procedure on his wrist ahead of his home GP in Canada.
'I started to feel some pain in my wrist and hand a couple of months ago, but I wanted to keep racing,' Stroll said. 'However, the discomfort just became too much, and we made the decision to have medical intervention.
"Naturally, I was disappointed to miss the race in Barcelona but it was the right call at the time, and I'm looking forward to getting back to racing this weekend… [The wrist's] feeling good.'
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