Bottas, a dangerous diet: “In 2014 I looked like a drug addict. I got out of it with the help of a psychologist”

Bottas and the 2014 diet Valtteri Bottas represents a white fly in F1. Among riders whose statements are always predictable and never biting, the Finn often finds a key to expressing something different, playing with self-irony on social media or opening up frankly on very delicate topics. Bottas retraced the story that took him from karting to Formula 1, including height problems (at six years old he was too short and couldn’t reach the pedals) and other, more serious ones he had at the beginning of 2014 after a request from Williams to go on a diet to “balance” a car that was expected to be overweight. Bottas’ words “I was too short, so my grandfather told me to eat porridge. Honestly it seemed like bullshit, but I was so desperate to eat it every day, to the point that my mum got tired of making it for me and I learned to cook it myself. It was coming out of my ears, but my grandfather was right, and in the spring I even touched the pedals of the karts. No, porridge isn’t magic, I probably just took in a huge amount of fibre. But it’s the lesson you need to learn if you want to have a place in Formula 1: the monotony of the daily routine pays off”, these are his words in a long article for The Players Tribune. “When I joined F1 my identity revolved around racing, I didn’t care about anything else. In 2014, it became a big problem. At the end of 2013 we went on winter break and Williams was planning an overweight car for 2014, so the team suggested I lose five kilos. If you put such a clear goal in front of me, I become obsessed: ‘Five? Why not ten? So we can make the car even faster’. So I started eating all the time.” steamed broccoli and cauliflower, then I would run and eat more broccoli just to have enough energy for another 90 minute run. The game had become all-encompassing, I was like a drug addict. I would wake up alone at 4 in the morning, I had uncontainable energy and I thought I had even more time to train,” he confessed. “Obviously, during the tests the car was actually underweight. I started having intense moments of mental confusion every time I found myself in a crowd, I just wanted to drive. Then I would go home and I looked like a ghost. The turning point came after Jules Bianchi’s accident: it seemed like I no longer cared about anything, I was negative about everything. ‘If I die, I die,’ I told my ex when she asked me if it was dangerous to be in the car. Shortly after, I asked for help and started to go to a psychologist. It was a relief to even admit that I had a problem, while the blood tests were a disaster, I was mentally and physically destroyed before I felt like myself again.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News
2026-05-01 01:00:00