The 29th F1 Beyond The Grid podcast has Valtteri Bottas talk about his time with Mercedes and Williams, slump in 2018, rallying, porridge and more.
Bottas opened the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast talking about back to back races and what he does on long haul planes. They then discuss how 2019 has been so far and touch on how he revived himself from the slump in 2018.
The Finn admits to questioning himself but redeemed during the winter and bounced back well to start the new season. He talks about being Lewis Hamilton’s teammate, who isn’t an easy driver to beat and also compete against considering the talent and experience.
They also touch a bit on his other teammates like Felipe Massa and Patsor Maldonado. They then talk about Toto Wolff as a boss as the discussion went back in time when Bottas started off his career and the journey to F1.
When asked what he would do if not F1, Bottas would have been a sports person still and may have taken up ice hockey. He is the first in the family to take up racing as Bottas revealed the story around porridge which kick-started his career.
He fell in love with the sport after watching a kart race in Finland. He couldn’t kart as he was too small and so his grand dad advised him to eat porridge which will help him to grow quicker and the very next year, he started karting.
The topic shifted to Mika Hakkinen, whom Bottas counted as one of his heroes in childhood and recalled the story around him becoming his manager. They then talked about 2015 Australian GP, where Bottas was forced out of the race due to back injury.
He recalled a tear on his back which was contributed by the weight restrictions in 2014. He has had pain ever since but interestingly the pain is no more since his crash in Austrian GP this year. He also feels that the current weight system is perfect for drivers.
While talking about F1, they opened up on rallying which Finns enjoy as much. Bottas explained why he love circuit racing more but does like to rally as a training regime and also for fun. He has had more outings in recent times than before.
It also became possible due to Wolff’s style of handling drivers which was different at Williams with Sir Frank Williams not allowing any rallying and or skiing. They talked about his time with the British team which started early in his career.
He rues missing out on pole against Massa in 2014 Austrian GP but was amazed with his first F1 podium. They ended the podcast discussing about the 2020 season and how Bottas is looking forward to a crucial season, which could be a make or break in his career.
Hear Cyril Abiteboul in the last week’s podcast