Invicta Racing driver Gabriel Bortoleto is Stake F1-bound in 2025, and with performances like his last-to-first Monza drive, it’s easy to understand why.
The Brazilian isn’t the first to graduate from the Invicta Racing FIA Formula 2 stable, though. Since 2020, Invicta has been one of the top teams providing young drivers with a springboard to the top tier of motorsport.
Three current or future F1 drivers have been through the team’s ranks in those five seasons; Zhou Guanyu was the first to progress into F1 in 2022, and both Jack Doohan and Gabriel Bortoleto will follow in his footsteps in 2025.
Zhou Guanyu
With backing from the Ferrari driver academy early in his career, Zhou Guanyu finished second in the Italian F4 Championship in 2015 and went on to race in three seasons of FIA Formula 3 from 2016 to 2018 – scoring two wins and 13 podiums – before he made the jump to F2.
From 2019 to 2021, he competed for the team in F2 and over the course of those three seasons, scored a total of five victories – Invicta’s only Monaco win to date among them – and 20 podiums with a best finish of third in the 2021 drivers’ championship.
In 2022, Zhou became Invicta’s first graduate, and the first-ever Chinese F1 driver with Alfa Romeo. Scoring six points and taking 18th in the championship in both 2022 and 2023, he recorded a best result of eighth in the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix.
2024 has been a difficult season for the Stake F1 team overall, but racing at the Chinese Grand Prix in his birthplace of Shanghai was a moment to remember for Zhou and the home crowd.
Without a race seat for 2026, there’s the potential for Zhou’s career to go full circle if he were to assume a rumoured reserve role at Ferrari. Frédéric Vasseur was Team Principal at Alfa Romeo during Zhou’s first season, making the partnership a natural fit.
Jack Doohan
Son of five-time MotoGP champion Mick Doohan, Jack made his way through the karting ranks in his early career, taking two Australian championships in 2015 and 2016, then finishing third in the FIA European Championship in 2017.
Making the move to single-seaters for 2018, Jack competed in several regional F4 and F3 championships over the next two seasons, taking wins in British F4 and Asian F3. Two F3 campaigns followed, and in 2021 Doohan took four wins en route to second in the standings.
Driving for Virtuosi and Invicta in 2022 and 2023, Jack took three victories per season, a total of 11 podiums and ended up third in the 2023 end-of-year standings.
The 2023 Feature Race at Spa would be the scene of Doohan’s greatest drive, surging from 11th on the grid through the field to lead by lap 16. A ‘cheap’ pitstop under a well-timed Safety Car enabled him to rejoin in second behind Theo Pourchaire. With the race restarted, Doohan was on the attack and masterfully seized the lead at Les Combes with three laps to go. He went on to take a win that surely goes down as one of Invicta’s greatest.
Patience was the name of the game for the Aussie in 2024, watching and waiting on the sidelines as Alpine’s reserve driver. That patience was rewarded when he was promoted to a race seat in 2025 alongside Pierre Gasly, becoming the second Invicta alumni to break into F1.
Gabriel Bortoleto
Like Doohan, Invicta Racing’s latest F1 prodigy, Gabriel Bortoleto was a national Karting sensation in his early career, taking titles and podiums in the final standings of many prestigious Brazilian championships from 2012 to 2014. In the similarly revered OKJ category, the young Brazilian finished third in 2018’s European and World Championships, providing a fitting launchpad towards single-seaters.
From 2020 to 2022, Gabriel raced in a variety of categories, taking wins in Italian F4 and Stock Car Light in Brazil, as well as Formula Regional in both Asia and Europe.
His first season in the F3 would be where Bortoleto’s career really started to take off. Two victories and six podiums yielded the title at his first attempt in 2023, and he duly signed with Invicta Racing for the 2024 F2 season.
Although the early stages of his F2 campaign were fraught with back luck, Gabriel came on strong when it mattered most. Pole position and second in the Imola Feature were a sign of things to come, and two battling drives to victory followed at the Red Bull Ring and Monza, the latter in a historic last-to-first performance.
That remarkable result on Italian soil arguably sealed his fate. F1 called and Bortoleto answered, signing for Stake F1 for the 2025 season alongside Nico Hülkenberg. He became the latest Brazilian driver to reach the pinnacle of motorsport, all the while hoping to emulate his heroes of Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Emerson Fittipaldi.
Could there be more in 2025?
Reigning F3 champion Leonardo Fornaroli is the first confirmed driver in Invicta’s 2025 F2 line-up and with an unconfirmed team-mate alongside him, there’s every possibility that the team and its drivers could challenge for the titles again next year.
Achieving the right results at the right time can change the trajectory of a career, something Bortoleto has learned in 2024, so there’s nothing to say Invicta couldn’t have another F1 graduate on its hands in 12 months’ time.
