Valtteri Bottas admits that he almost considered quitting Formula 1 a few years ago because he felt out of place.
Bottas’ F1 career has been a pretty successful one. He has won 10 races and stood on the podium 66 times during his time in the sport. At the end of 2021, he’s set to end his 5 year stint with Mercedes and join Alfa Romeo racing on a multi year deal.
In a recent podcast, the 32 year old opened up about the most difficult moments in his career. He spoke about how weight issues affected him and how overworking took a toll on him, both physically and mentally.
Bottas also said that there were times when he didn’t enjoy being on an F1 grid. He felt out of place, lacking energy and at one point in his career, considered quitting the sport altogether.
“I was following the same formula. At some point I began to feel like I had run out of energy.” said the Finnish driver.
“All my life ever was was F1 and nothing else. I didn’t really enjoy it at all. During the winter I thought if I should just quit.”
Valtteri Bottas was really shaken by ex-teammate Jules Bianchi’s death
Jules Bianchi was a Formula 1 driver who was drove for the now defunct Marussia team. He passed away after sustaining serious head injuries during a crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.
Bottas was teammates with him during their Formula 3 days. The two drivers had known each other for quite some time and the latter passing away hit Bottas hard. He said that he preferred not to speak to anyone about it.
“I talked about death and it no longer moved me in any way.” he said.
“My mind was fogged for the entire year, and it took me two years to recover. I suffered from arrhythmia and a few times I thought that this was it.”
After struggling in a really dark place in his early F1 days, Bottas said that he took help for psychologists and got out of it. It took time, but he says he has recovered from the mental slump, that nearly forced him to leave Formula 1 forever.
