has opened up about his profession in a weak letter on-line, revealing he starved himself throughout his time at to alleviate weight considerations with the workforce’s automotive.
The favored Finnish driver, 36, has this yr after a yr out with , F1’s latest workforce. The 2026 marketing campaign is Bottas’s thirteenth in Formulation 1.
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The 36-year-old began his profession with Williams in 2013 earlier than shifting to Mercedes in 2017, the place he partnered amid a interval of all-out dominance for the Silver Arrows. He then concluded his first stint within the sport with three seasons at Alfa Romeo/Sauber from 2022 to 2024.
Bottas impressed in his early years, rapidly registering podiums for Williams however in a letter for launched on Wednesday, the Finn has revealed his excessive and harmful method to bettering efficiency at the beginning of his second season in 2014.
“OK, now the foolish Finnish man has to get slightly bit severe,” Bottas wrote. “I gained’t bore you, don’t fear. I’m not going to cry right here. We don’t need to play the dramatic music. However yeah… mainly, I began ravenous myself.
“It began with a easy weight loss plan. After my rookie season, we went on winter break, and the Williams workforce was predicting an chubby automotive for 2014. This was again when there was no seat-plus-driver weight minimal, so the workforce urged that I lose 5 kilos. In case you put a transparent aim like that in entrance of me, I’m going to obsess over it.
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“Whenever you inform me 5 kilos in two months, my mind thinks, ‘5? Why not 10? We will make the automotive even faster.’ So I began consuming steamed broccoli and a little bit of steamed cauliflower for nearly each meal. I can nonetheless odor the broccoli. Moist. Inexperienced. Plain. My god.
“It was like a recreation to me. I’d get up and weigh myself each morning, and once I’d see the quantity go down, I’d really feel a deep satisfaction. I’d come again from a 90-minute run and eat my little bowl of steamed broccoli, simply to have sufficient vitality so I may go for an additional 90-minute run.
“I had this GPS watch, and my coach may observe my coaching, my coronary heart fee, all the things. I knew he would suppose I used to be burning myself out, so I began taking the watch off and leaving it at residence earlier than my second session. The sport turned fully consuming.”
Bottas acknowledged that he felt like a “drug addict” on the time however now, in hindsight, says that mentality was “fully delusional.”
Bottas celebrates a podium end in Austria in 2014 (Getty Photographs)
He provides: “After two months of spiralling, my nerves had been shot. I’d get up at 4am by myself, no alarm. My coronary heart could be beating out of my chest. I’d have all this vitality, and I’d suppose, ‘That is so nice. I’ve a lot additional time within the day to do all my coaching.’
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“I used to be like a drug addict. ‘I’ve by no means felt higher!’ Ha. Fully delusional. The precise purpose I used to be waking up so early was that my physique was in hunger mode. The worst half about it was that I’d look within the mirror within the morning and I’d see my silhouette, and I used to be so glad that my reflection was getting slimmer. It was not about racing anymore.
“I don’t even understand how a lot weight I misplaced in these two months. I appeared sick. And naturally, after all the things I put myself by means of, we got here again from the break and began testing the automotive, what do you suppose occurred? The rattling factor was really underweight. Welcome to F1.
“I began having these intense foggy spells. Not full-blown panic assaults precisely, however every time I used to be in a crowd, I’d begin to really feel dizzy and simply …. bizarre, like I needed to get out of there. I wished to be alone, or within the automotive.
“The strangest factor is that once I was on the grid, all the things felt nice.”
Bottas is again on the F1 grid this season with Cadillac (PA)
Bottas says the turning level arrived after Jules Bianchi’s finally deadly crash on the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix – and he determined to see a psychologist.
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“My psychologist really made an fascinating commentary about me,” Bottas penned. “He mentioned, ‘You understand Valtteri, you don’t appear to have any pursuits outdoors of racing. Nothing else that brings you pleasure. You’re virtually like a machine.’
“He was proper. My complete id was the automotive.”
Bottas, who has 10 grand prix wins and 67 podiums to his title, will race this weekend on the Miami Grand Prix as F1 returns following the enforced five-week spring break.
