Valtteri Bottas drove for Williams early in his career alongside Brazilian Felipe Massa. He spent the years 2013-2016 in this team. He did not have much success there. In the general classification of the Grand Prix he was classified in 17th, 4th, 5th and 8th place. Now the Finnish driver has revealed how difficult his beginnings at Williams were.
The F1 star had serious problems with an eating disorder. “It got out of control”
This is because Bottas has been training very hard. “I was training to the point of physical and mental pain. It all got out of hand and practically became an addiction. I haven’t been diagnosed with an eating disorder, but I definitely had one,” Bottas told Maria Veitola Night Live.
Obsessed with losing weight, Bottas ate steamed broccoli every day, which he consumed between his incessant physical workouts.
– It wasn’t very healthy. If the team told me that I had to weigh 68 kg, and I was 73 kg, I did everything to achieve it. I wanted to be the best in the world,” Bottas added.
In 2014, Fin used the help of a psychologist. This is the result of his problems and the fatal accident that Jules Bianchi had in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. The Frenchman fell into a coma after it and died a year later.
– After all this, I needed a psychologist to recover. His first assessment was that I am almost like a robot who only wants to achieve his goal and has no feelings. This made me very concerned. At that time, I had practically no other activities apart from F1, says the Finn.
His problems repeated in 2021 when he was a Mercedes driver. This was also due to the fact that his teammate Lewis Hamilton drove much better than him. Bottas always lost to him in the final drivers’ standings. However, he was twice a world runner-up, in 2019 and 2020.
– 2021 has been a very difficult year. My future was at stake and I didn’t know where I was going to ride. It was a big step that required outside support. At times like this, you think you’re a tough guy, that you can handle it just by looking in the mirror. For someone with a winning mentality like me, Hamilton’s dominance was difficult to accept. It was only last season that I was able to accept that Lewis is a better driver. Before, I was wondering what I could do to beat him and win the title. I wanted to win everything at once, it didn’t work out and I couldn’t accept it. It was exhausting five years,” says Bottas.
Now the Finn has set himself a new goal for his second F1 season with the Alfa Romeo team. – We have made a lot of progress together and there is only one direction, to climb up, both for me and for the whole formation – he admits.
The new F1 season will start on March 5 in Bahrain and end on November 26 in Abu Dhabi. Dutchman Max Verstappen defends the world title.
Source: Sport.PL
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