Being in the shoes of Valtteri Bottas during his time with Mercedes is not an enviable spot. Yes, working at the best team in F1 at the time, alongside the most successful driver of the era has its pros, but it does have some big cons. Working with Lewis Hamilton as a teammate is a different ballgame, and sometimes, not a good thing.
Early this year, Bottas had confessed to having an eating disorder during his time at Mercedes. A happier and wiser man at Alfa Romeo, Bottas courageously opened up on some darker times.
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During a Finnish interview, Bottas confessed that being light and his eating habits soon became an unhealthy obsession in his quest for performance. “I trained myself to pain, physically and mentally.”
He added, “No eating disorder was officially diagnosed, but it was definitely there. It wasn’t very healthy. I wanted to be the best, and I thought I had to do that. If the team says that I have to weigh 68 kilos and I naturally weigh 73 kilos, then they will do everything for that.”
Now, Bottas has stated that the pressures of watching a much lighter Lewis Hamilton excel while he fell short, added to his deteriorating mental health.
Lewis Hamilton played a part in Valtteri Bottas’ eating disorder
Sitting down with Tom Clarkson for the Beyond the Grid podcast, Bottas revealed that the pressures of racing against Hamilton forced his health to pay the price.
“I was so focused on being trying to be the best and trying to be as lightweight as I can in terms of physical weight in those tricky times.” The answer had his interviewer confused. Clarkson wanted to dig deeper as he reasoned that the car had a minimum weight, which was unrelated to the weight of the driver.
Bottas then shed light on the true competition he faced as Hamilton’s established wingman. He quietly answered Clarkson, “Because my teammate was 15 kilos [33 lbs] lighter than me. And if the car is overweight, then it might have a deficit.” This meant that the lighter Hamilton had an advantage as
Thus, Bottas blames his competitive spirit, and no one or nothing else. “It was me. Just me thinking it’s the right thing to do and things got a bit out of hand… It just became an obsession of trying to train more and eat less.”
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7 kilos lighter than what he is now, it was a lesson Bottas learned from. He even added that it was impossible to meet the physical and mental demands of being an F1 driver.
Now a happier and healthier man away from the pressures of being a Mercedes driver, Bottas has clearly had a fresh perspective to life. Donning a mullet and really, being himself and doing whatever he wants, has been a good change of pace for the lively driver.
