Over the last few years, Valtteri Bottas has fallen in love with Australia, and taken part in several activities down under, that have brought his name up in the news. This includes spending his time on Australian beaches, getting a mullet haircut, and even launching his own brand of beer in the country. However, an incident involving an expensive supercar down under recently got the Finnish driver in trouble.
Ahead of the Australian GP earlier this year, Bottas tested out the 2016 Bathurst 1000 winning V8 Commodore Supercar in Adelaide. In the Beyond the Grid podcast, Bottas reveals that driving the car was a very enjoyable experience, but he started doing donuts on the car, which the owner didn’t appreciate.
According to Bottas, the car turned out to be “pretty valuable, ” so the owner, Brad Horst, was unhappy. According to Barn Finds, the V8 Supercar is valued at $1.8 million, and if Bottas performing donuts on it damaged the car, Horst would have to spend a lot repairing it.
Valtteri Bottas sees himself driving supercars after F1
Bottas has been in F1 since 2013 and has won 10 races in the sport so far. He insists that he isn’t done, and will spend the foreseeable future in the sport, but sees himself driving in other racing ventures in the future.
When the host of Beyond the Grid, Tom Clarkson asked Bottas whether he would drive in the Bathurst 1000 in the future, the 33-year-old replied, “Why not?”
Of course, racing in F1 and driving supercars around a track is very different, but Bottas feels it is not as different as rallying, which is also something he loves. The Finn stated previously that he would love to try rallying someday, which is something “from another world” as per him. Supercars are a bit closer to driving F1 cars, but it would still require a major change in approach for Bottas when he chooses to make the switch.
Underwhelming start to Miami GP weekend for Bottas
Bottas left Mercedes in 2022 to join Alfa Romeo, and the start to life for him at the Hinwil-based outfit was exciting to say the least. Alfa Romeo showed tremendous progress compared to their usual performance over the years, and Bottas able to score points on an almost regular basis. However, with time, this performance faded away.
The start to the 2023 season has been slow for Alfa Romeo and Bottas, and it continued on to this weekend in Miami. The ex-Williams driver finished P14 in both FP1 and FP2 on Friday, and the early signs don’t show much hope for them finishing in the points.
Nevertheless, Bottas feels that spending a lot of time on the track helped his team gather a lot of data. As per his team’s website, Bottas feels that Friday’s session was productive for them.
