“It wasn’t good for me in the long run”: Valtteri Bottas opens up about the time when staying in shape for F1 races nearly left him burnt out

Valtteri Bottas recently shared that overexerting himself during training sessions took a toll on him and left him nearly burnt out. 

Valtteri Bottas has had a successful career in Formula 1. He has won 10 races and stood on the podium 66 times during his time in the sport. The Mercedes driver is set to leave his team at the end of 2021 and embark on a new journey when he joins Alfa Romeo racing.

However, his journey and experience in this world has not always been very smooth. In a recent podcast, Bottas opened up about how maintaining his weight became an obsession for him back in 2014.

Bottas was driving for Williams in 2014. According to the 32 year old, keeping their weight in check was a drivers number 1 priority back in those days. The need to stay in shape forced him to overdo his exercises which left him in a very bad shape, both physically and mentally.

He admitted to performing the same routines twice to keep himself in shape, something he thought would be good for him. It ended up taking a toll on his health, and left him in a very difficult place.

Also read: “Valtteri Bottas has always been in a pressure cooker”: Toto Wolff admits that comparisons to Lewis Hamilton may have impacted the Finnish driver’s performances during his time in Mercedes

Seeing smaller readings on the weight scales gave Valtteri Bottas a boost

In the podcast, Bottas said, “I drove myself into a serious state of overexertion during that season, purely out of my own stubbornness. Back then we had to reduce our weight to a minimum, and I totally lost control over that, Bottas admits.”

“I had to weigh myself every morning and evening. The reading on the scales had to always be smaller and smaller. This gave me a boost.”

Bottas went on to say how he did the same exercise twice, just to make himself feel better. He did them once when his trainer asked him to and then went on the do it again, in secret.

“I thought it would be good for me, but in the long run it obviously wasn’t.” the Mercedes driver admits.

Valtteri Bottas now understands he was overexerting himself back in his early F1 days. With time, he seeked help from professionals and slowly got out of the dark place, recovering gradually.

Also read: Valtteri Bottas plans on leaving a gift for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes before leaving for Alfa Romeo in 2022