Feature: Gabriel Bortoleto and Brazil's long road back to Formula 1

by F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth

SHANGHAI, March 14 (Xinhua) -- For a country that once treated Formula 1 like a second religion, Brazil's absence from the grid had begun to feel strangely normal.

Between the days of Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa, Brazil regularly churned out F1 champions and race winners. Grand Prix Sundays were national events, as Interlagos bec