Bottas opens up on dangerous weight-loss diet
Cadillac F1 driver Valtteri Bottas of Finland walks in the paddock ahead of the Miami Grand Prix (Chris Graythen) Valtteri Bottas on Wednesday revealed he deliberately endured a dangerous near-starvation diet to control his weight during his second season as a Formula One driver with Williams 12 years ago. The 36-year-old Finn, who has returned to F1 with the new American Cadillac team after a season on the sidelines, admitted he was "delusional" and felt "like a drug addict" as he aimed to lose 10 kilos. In a letter published by The Players’ Tribune, he said he began the diet after his Williams team forecast they would have an overweight car in 2014 and suggested he should lose five kilos.
"This was back when there was no seat-plus-driver weight minimum," explained Bottas, who will line up on the grid for Cadillac for the fourth race of the 2026 season, his 13th in Formula One, in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix. "If you put a clear goal like that in front of me, I am going to obsess over it ... When you tell me five kilos in two months, my brain thinks, 'five?
Why not 10? We can make the car even quicker. ' "So, I started eating steamed broccoli and a bit of steamed cauliflower for almost every meal.
I can still smell the broccoli. Wet. Green.
Plain. My god. It was like a game to me.