After a wonderful vacation with his girlfriend in Australia, Valtteri Bottas is headed north to Sweden. There he participates with fellow Finn Mika Hakkinen at the 2023 Race of Champions as a warm-up ahead of his F1 return.
With Bottas in hand, Alfa Romeo has a proven winner who has won 10 races during his time with Mercedes. But the Finn recently revealed how difficult it was to cope with the high demands of the sport.
The life of a Formula 1 racer is hard. The constant travelling, extreme G Forces and the high-pressure environment take a toll on drivers, and we haven’t talked about how dangerous driving at high speeds is.
The Finn revealed that when he started his journey in F1, he burdened himself with a lot of unhealthy expectations. All of which made his mental and physical health worse.
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Valtteri Bottas shares the story behind his eating disorder
After winning the 2011 GP2 series with ART, Valtteri Bottas started his F1 career with Williams in 2013. He was signed as a test driver by the British team back in 2010, but this was his first time entering the big leagues.
F1 cars are difficult for an average person to fit into. To drive at high speeds and G-forces, while being snug in a tight and narrow monocoque means drivers have to be in the best of shape and physical fitness.
The Finn revealed that he was slightly outside the physical requirements of his team. And to cope with this he resorts to over-training and eating too little.
Bottas recalls, “It wasn’t very healthy. I wanted to be the best, and I thought I had to do that.” The Finn revealed that sometimes all he ate for the entire day was just steamed broccoli.
He stated that teams will go to lengths at times too. He added, “If the team says that I have to weigh 68 kilos and I naturally weigh 73 kilos, then they will do everything for that.”
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Bottas was a robot with no feelings, claims psychologist
Valtteri Bottas shared that all the while he hid his obsession with overtraining and restrictive eating from his coach. And this started to affect his work, which prompted him to consider seeking professional help.
Bottas revealed, “I trained myself to pain physically and mentally. It got out of hand, and it became an addiction. No eating disorder was officially diagnosed, but it was there.”
It got to a point where Finn was forced to consult a psychologist. And the assessment from the expert blew his cover.
Bottas stated, “I saw a psychologist to help me recover, whose first assessment of me was that I’m almost like a robot who only wants to reach his goal and has no feelings at all. It startled me. At that time I indeed had no other life than F1.”
While from the outside, it looks like all F1 drivers lead a glamorous and affluent life, the requirement of the sport leaves a long-lasting impact on their mental and physical health. Because most of their lives revolve around racing, when the race is over, a majority of drivers are mentally pretty lonely.
