The reinvention of F1’s Valtteri Bottas

If you follow Valtteri Bottas on social media, the chances are you’ll have seen a lot of him in the past 18 months.

A lot of him.

Last May, the Formula One driver decided to go for a swim while on a visit to Aspen with his partner Tiffany Cromwell, an Australian professional cyclist, and their friend Paul Ripke, a photographer and creative.

The picture Cromwell would snap of Bottas, his bare bottom poking out of the water, made it to the driver’s Instagram page. Bottas thought it looked artsy.

Predictably, the post went viral. A special run of prints were made and sold, raising over $50,000 for charity. Bottas saved the final print for Lewis Hamilton, his Mercedes teammate of five years, who called it “one of the best photos I’ve seen.”

 

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It was also evidence that Bottas was embracing his off-track life. Now racing with Alfa Romeo, he was relaxed enough to be himself away from the track. It was a different world to Mercedes, for which he raced on a series of one-year contracts while coping with the demands of a title-fighting team.

For the 2023 summer break, Bottas is back in Aspen, spending his time away from the demands of a busy year. This season so far has been more difficult than 2022, yielding few on-track highlights amid Alfa Romeo’s struggle for consistent form.

Yet Bottas has filled his ‘second life’ away from the track with interests including cycling, a coffee roastery and a new gin startup.

“I feel it’s quite a sustainable way of being able to make a long career, being able to separate the two (lives),” Bottas told The Athletic.

At 33, Bottas may be closer to the end of his F1 career than the start. But he’s eager to use his experience to help navigate Alfa Romeo through its current tough spell, and be in prime spot for when the good times arrive at the team in the future.

Valuable experience

Bottas was part of the Mercedes juggernaut for five of its eight consecutive constructors’ championship victories. Partnering Hamilton from 2017 to 2021, he won 10 races and twice finished second to his teammate in the drivers’ championship. With the exception of Hamilton, no current F1 driver has been part of more championship victories.

It’s a far cry from how Bottas has started 2023. Now into his second year at Alfa Romeo, the Finn has just two points finishes to his name, neither higher than eighth. A driver who set an F1 record by reaching the final round of qualifying on 103 consecutive occasions has made it that far just twice as Alfa Romeo looks stuck in F1’s lower-midfield.

“It’s been challenging,” Bottas said. “Over the winter, many other teams just managed to make bigger steps than us, and even during the season now. It’s not an easy situation. And now we need to try and work our way out of it.”

Bottas started life at Alfa Romeo very differently. He joined after Mercedes opted to sign George Russell (then at Williams) as Hamilton’s new teammate ahead of the 2022 season, committing to a three-year contract. In the early part of last year, Alfa Romeo was a regular points-scorer. Bottas picked up 46 points in the first nine races — and then just three in the next 13 as its form dipped.

Although Bottas says Alfa Romeo now has a “clearer plan” to develop its car, he knows that he himself will also play a vital role, bringing his experience from Mercedes to help move the team forward, especially as teammate Zhou Guanyu is only in his second F1 season.

“I need to give 100 percent of my knowledge, and be fully committed,” Bottas said. “That’s my role at the moment — not just to drive the car, but to really keep pushing and keep trying.”

With the exception of Lewis Hamilton, no current F1 driver has been part of more championship victories that Bottas. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

The fun factor

One thing Bottas found when he left Mercedes for Alfa Romeo is that a lot of F1 became more enjoyable. He wasn’t fighting at the front any more, yet he had more of a chance to show off his personality. He could be who he really wanted to be.

Mercedes unquestionably brought Bottas the greatest years of his career. He regularly ran Hamilton close in qualifying trim, a considerable feat given the Briton has 104 pole positions to his name, more than anyone else in F1 history. But his pairing with Hamilton came with mental challenges. Team boss Toto Wolff once called Bottas the “wingman”, to the Finn’s frustration. Bottas was asked to move aside for Hamilton to help him win the 2018 Russian Grand Prix, something he said was “tough to accept” in a later season of “Drive to Survive.”

The pressure Bottas felt at Mercedes meant his more creative, seemingly happier side has only emerged in the past couple of years. By his own admission, had he still been at Mercedes, he’d likely have never posted the cheeky photo from Aspen. He no longer needs to fit a certain way of being as part of one of the biggest, title-fighting teams.

Another example came at this year’s Australian Grand Prix, which Bottas has adopted as his de facto home race on account of Cromwell. He turned up for media day sporting a mullet, flip flops,  wearing a tank top — complete with tan lines to complete the look — and flip flops. He regularly runs a special helmet for races, incorporating Pac-Man (Monaco), beavers and lumberjacks (Canada) and even his own face into the designs.

Even through this year’s struggles, Bottas savors F1. “I’m still enjoying it, and there’s still a good atmosphere,” he said. He also appreciates the stability of knowing he’ll be at the team in 2024: His move to Alfa came with the kind of long-term contract he never had at Mercedes.

“It’s so nice!” Bottas said of his long-term contract. The lack of stability also had an impact off-track as well. “It was a bit more difficult to switch off,” he said. “But now there’s a bit of stability, it’s a bit easier to kind of separate things.”

That separation — between life as an F1 driver and life away from F1 — has given Bottas the chance to explore some of his biggest passions. In 2020, he became a co-owner of Kahiwa Coffee Roasters in his native Finland.

To his surprise, the knock-on effect of F1’s “Drive to Survive” boom is that markets such as the United States are now ordering his coffee beans from Finland. “It’s quite interesting to follow the online sales,” he said. “Where the biggest F1 audiences are, those places are growing. So there’s definitely a connection.”

Earlier this year, Bottas and Cromwell formed a new gin company called Oath. The pair collected gins, and saw the opportunity to explore their shared interest further. It is also a venture with their post-competitive careers in mind.

“It’s another completely separate thing to think about and to focus on,” Bottas said. “The main thing is again, it comes through passion. It’s both of our interests. It’s nice to do things you really care about.”

Earlier this year, Bottas and his partner Tiffany Cromwell formed a new gin company called Oath. “It’s another completely separate thing to think about and to focus on,” Bottas said (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Fighting for the long-term

Even with his outside interests, Bottas’s focus and commitment remains firmly on the track. And he still has a role to play in the sport’s future.

Alfa Romeo is a team in transition. Last year, Audi announced it would enter F1 for the first time in 2026, acquiring a majority stake in the Sauber Group that runs the Alfa Romeo team operation. Alfa Romeo’s title sponsorship of the team will end before 2024.

Audi will arrive in F1 with a rich history in motor racing, including 13 victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is already expanding its base in Neuburg, Germany, which will be home to the engine development. Andreas Seidl, the team principal who helped oversee McLaren’s turnaround, joined as the new Sauber Group CEO in December — a big signing that made its goals clear. Within a few years of joining the grid, Audi wants to be among the leading F1 teams.

It makes the team an attractive proposition for drivers in the future. Bottas has been clear ever since the news was announced his goal would be to stick around for Audi’s arrival, and help lay the groundwork in the meantime. It remains a big incentive through the trickier periods.

“It is tough fighting at the back sometimes,” Bottas said. “When you’re almost fighting P-Last, it’s painful. I just try to think things will get better, and if I put in the effort, hopefully we’ll get out of it.”

Bottas said the shock return of Daniel Ricciardo to the F1 grid with AlphaTauri, which has now put him in the running for a future Red Bull seat, was a sign of how quickly drivers’ fortunes can change.

“That’s the beauty of the sport,” Bottas said. “You never know what’s around the corner. You never know what happens in the driver market and which teams are competitive.

“For me, being a part of a manufacturer now is the next goal. That will hopefully give me a chance to get back up there.”

(Lead image: Design: Eamonn Dalton; Photos: Francois Nel/Getty Images, Chris Putnam/Future Publishing via Getty Images