Bortoleto's father, Lincoln Oliveira, is chief executive officer and co-owner of Brazil's Stock Car Pro Series, and the family operates KTF Sports, a kart racing team. Bortoleto started karting at age seven in 2011 and remained in karts through 2019, with his strongest year being 2018 when he finished third in the European and World CIK-FIA Championships in OK-Junior. He moved to Europe as a young teenager to pursue a racing career with family backing.
He is managed by A14 Management, the driver management company owned by two-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion Fernando Alonso — making Bortoleto a protégé of Alonso from the earliest stages of his car racing career.
Bortoleto made his car racing debut in the 2020 Italian F4 Championship with Prema Powerteam, partnering teammates Sebastián Montoya, Gabriele Minì, and Dino Beganovic. He took his first single-seater victory at Mugello in the fourth round of the season, adding further podiums at Monza and finishing fifth overall in the championship — behind eventual champion Minì and Beganovic.
In March 2021 Bortoleto joined the Formula Regional European Championship with FA Racing, run by MP Motorsport. His rookie campaign was modest — a first points finish in the opening round at Imola, a podium at the Red Bull Ring, and a final standing of fifteenth — but it established his presence in European junior racing.
For 2022 he switched to R-ace GP and produced a significantly stronger campaign despite engine problems at various rounds. He won at Spa-Francorchamps, inheriting victory after teammate Hadrien David was penalised, and took a further victory at Barcelona. He ended the season sixth overall, beaten by David but ahead of other strong rivals. Late 2022 he also contested part of the Formula Regional Asian Championship for the same team, winning a reversed-grid race at Yas Marina.
At the end of 2022, Bortoleto completed the FIA Formula 3 post-season test at Jerez with Trident, partnering Oliver Goethe and Leonardo Fornaroli — a session that led directly to his announcement as a Trident driver for 2023, the first driver confirmed for that season.
Bortoleto joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme in October 2023 after winning the F3 title — but the championship itself was his defining moment.
The 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship with Trident began with adversity: in his first race at Bahrain International Circuit, Bortoleto received a penalty for causing a collision with Rafael Villagómez and was classified outside the points. His response was immediate: he won the feature race the following day when first-place finisher Gabriele Minì received a penalty.
That recovery set the template for his season. He arrived at Albert Park claiming pole position and a second consecutive feature race victory, taking an early and commanding championship lead. He continued scoring in each race through the following five rounds, including second place in the feature race at the Red Bull Ring and two runner-up finishes in sprint races in Britain and Hungary.
His only serious setback came at Spa-Francorchamps, where a weak qualifying session was compounded by contact from Dino Beganovic during Saturday's race that forced him to retire. Despite a narrow miss on points in Sunday's race, his title rivals failed to capitalise sufficiently, leaving Bortoleto with a 38-point advantage heading into the final round at Monza.
When Paul Aron and Pepe Martí failed to claim pole position during Monza qualifying, the mathematics were settled: Bortoleto was crowned FIA Formula 3 champion on Friday of race weekend, before a wheel had turned in anger.
Bortoleto's F3 title made him the fourth driver in the FIA Formula 2 era to win the FIA F3 and F2 titles in successive years, following Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Oscar Piastri — a lineage that underscores both the weight of the achievement and the track record it predicts for Formula One. His F3 campaign earned him a place in the McLaren Driver Development Programme and, by extension, a route to a Formula One seat with Sauber for 2025.
The F3 era revealed the qualities that would define his subsequent career: aggressive recovery from setbacks, intelligent championship management when leading, and the ability to win from multiple grid positions on unfamiliar circuits.