Valtteri Bottas: It’s important to disconnect from Formula 1 sometimes

At the current stage of his career, Valtteri Bottas cannot boast of excellent results, but nevertheless he feels psychologically much more comfortable at Sauber than at Mercedes in his time, although he occasionally won races back then.

Valtteri has been racing for the Swiss team since 2022 and fans are gradually discovering new sides of the Finn’s character that are not directly related to racing.

“To make your career last longer, in my opinion it is better to allow yourself a freer lifestyle and listen to yourself more,” Bottas said in an interview with RacingNews365. “In our sport, many days a year there is always a tight schedule and there are many things you have to do, but that is normal.

But when free time arises, it’s nice to manage it freely and decide for yourself what to do. In my opinion, this provides more stability in the long term. I was always very hard on myself, especially in the early years when I moved to Mercedes, and I didn’t allow myself much. But this is also normal if you have not yet mastered this sport and are fully committed to Formula 1 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But at some point you realize: “Okay, sometimes you need a certain factor that will help you find a more correct balance and restore your strength.”

It’s easier to talk about it than to put it into practice, but I think every rider is different, every person has their own individual characteristics. For me personally, the most important thing is to find something to do that allows you to disconnect from our sport, while you can concentrate on something else and not think about Formula 1 for at least a day or two.

But when I return to work, I do so with great enthusiasm and enjoy spending long hours communicating with engineers. Of course Formula 1 remains a priority, but I’m only talking about the other side of life, which allows you to relax mentally and physically and stay fit.

Now I have even developed a kind of addiction: I really enjoy doing all kinds of projects and taking on tasks that have nothing to do with work. In general I like it, I like new challenges.

For example, I became interested in cycling, because this is another rare sport when you are at the start with everyone. And you can really test yourself by comparing yourself to completely different people, and it’s great that everyone is equal in this regard.

In the long term, I won’t get much results from cycling because I started too late. I should have started this sport much earlier, but there are always amateur competitions that are a lot of fun and where I can participate and test myself against the best cyclists of my level.”