Bortoleto was disappointed to crash out on the first lap of the Brazil GP following contact with Lance Stroll at turn 10.

It was a weekend to forget for the Sao Paulo native. A huge 57g crash in the Sprint on Saturday ruled him out of qualifying for the race after his mechanics were unable to turn his car around in time.

It was also a point of disappointment for the fans at Interlagos, who cheered on their first home hero in almost a decade. The last Brazilian F1 driver to race around Interlagos was Felipe Massa with Williams in 2017.

Bortoleto said that Hulkenberg, who has 247 race starts to his name, offered some heartwarming words of advice after the race.

Hulkenberg reportedly told Bortoleto: "You're going to have a lot of good and bad moments.

Bortoleto added: "He's proud of what I've done this year. I'm going to keep going strong and the good moments will come.”

Though the reigning F2 champion sits P19 in the drivers championship, he has impressed in his debut F1 season. A P6 finish in Hungary was a particular highlight, a race in which qualified and finished ahead of Max Verstappen.

Hulkenberg has himself suffered many setbacks since he made his F1 debut in 2010.

Despite scoring a pole position around Interlagos in his debut season, he had to sit on the sidelines in 2011 after not being offered a race season.

Similarly Hulkenberg failed to secure a full-time race race between 2020 and 2022, bouncing back in 2023 with Haas F1.

And most notably Hulkenberg, who had the unfortunate record of most F1 races without a podium, proved doubters wrong when he achieved his maiden podium at this year's British GP.

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