Valtteri Bottas (36) has opened up about the extreme diet he followed 12 years ago to manage his weight during his second season in Formula 1, describing how it left him delirious, feeling like a “drug addict,” and on the verge of starvation.
Now back in F1 with the new American team Cadillac, the Finnish driver revealed that he pushed his physical limits to the brink in an effort to shed 10 kilograms while driving for Williams. In a letter published by The Players’ Tribune on Wednesday, Bottas explained that the diet started after Williams predicted their car would be overweight for the 2014 season and suggested he lose five kilograms.
Weight control was a critical factor for F1 drivers for many years before regulations were eased. “This was at a time when there was no minimum combined weight for seat and driver,” Bottas said ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2026 season. “If you give me a clear goal like that, I’ll become obsessed… When you say five kilos in two months, my brain thinks: ‘Five? Why not 10? We can make the car even faster,'” he wrote.
The driver began eating steamed broccoli and cauliflower in “almost every meal,” even after returning from a grueling 90-minute race. He became fixated on his weight: “It was like a game to me. I’d wake up and weigh myself every morning, and when I saw the number go down, I felt deep satisfaction.” Bottas also admitted to removing his GPS watch before additional training sessions to avoid his coach’s scrutiny, adding that “the game consumed everything.”
The 10-time Grand Prix winner maintained this extreme diet for two months and confessed he “had frayed nerves.” When pre-season testing began, the Williams car was “actually underweight.” He then started to “feel strange” and suffered “episodes of intense mental confusion.”
After the rainy and tragic 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, where French driver Jules Bianchi had a fatal accident, Bottas finally saw a psychologist. He abandoned the diet, regained his health and fitness, and went on to enjoy a career that took him from Williams to Mercedes in 2017 as the number two to seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. He later raced for Sauber until 2024 and has now returned with Cadillac this year.