Miami (AFP) – Valtteri Bottas on Wednesday revealed he deliberately endured a dangerous near-starvation diet to control his weight during his second season as a Formula One driver with Williams 12 years ago. The 36-year-old Finn, who has returned to F1 with the new American Cadillac team after a season on the sidelines, admitted he was “delusional” and felt “like a drug addict” as he aimed to lose 10 kilos.
In a letter published by The Players’ Tribune, he said he began the diet after his Williams team forecast they would have an overweight car in 2014 and suggested he should lose five kilos. “This was back when there was no seat-plus-driver weight minimum,” explained Bottas, who will line up on the grid for Cadillac for the fourth race of the 2026 season, his 13th in Formula One, in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix.
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“If you put a clear goal like that in front of me, I am going to obsess over it… When you tell me five kilos in two months, my brain thinks, ‘five? Why not 10? We can make the car even quicker.'” So, I started eating steamed broccoli and a bit of steamed cauliflower for almost every meal. I can still smell the broccoli. Wet. Green. Plain. My god. It was like a game to me.
“I would wake up and weigh myself every morning, and when I’d see the number go down, I’d feel a deep satisfaction. I would come back from a 90-minute run and eat my little bowl of steamed broccoli, just to have enough energy so I could go for another 90-minute run.” I had this GPS watch and my coach could track my training, my heart rate, everything. I knew he would think I was burning myself out, so I started taking the watch off and leaving it at home before my second session. The game became completely consuming.”
Bottas said he continued the most extreme diet for two months, admitting “my nerves were shot – I would wake up at 4am on my own, no alarm, my heart beating out of my chest.”
– Intense foggy spells –
When pre-season testing began, he said, the Williams car was “actually underweight … Welcome to F1.” He then began to “feel weird” and suffer “intense foggy spells — not full-blown panic attacks exactly, but when I was in a crowd, I would start to feel dizzy and had to get out. I wanted to be alone or in the car.”
Finally, he said, he went to see a psychologist after the tragic rain-hit 2014 Japanese Grand Prix and Jules Bianchi’s ultimately fatal accident. The psychologist told him: “You know Valtteri, you don’t seem to have any interests outside of racing. Nothing else that brings you joy. You’re almost like a machine.”
He was right,” admitted Bottas, winner of 10 Grands Prix. “My whole identity was the car.” He ended the diet and recovered form and health to enjoy a career that took him from Williams to Mercedes in 2017 as number two to seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and then three years with Sauber to 2024. His revelation may shock many, but weight control was a critical factor for drivers for many years before regulations were eased.
© 2024 AFP
