Current F1 driver REVEALS struggle with eating disorder

Current F1 driver REVEALS struggle with eating disorder

Valtteri Bottas admitted that his food issues became an 'obsession'

Janice Kusters

Saturday 19 August 2023 20:57 Updated: 09:59

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Valtteri Bottas has been candid about the challenges he's faced in his career, and in the second season of F1's Beyond All Limits he has offered a raw and unfiltered account of the obstacles he faced during the 2014 season.

Preparing for an F1 season is never a small feat, but Bottas has admitted that the 2014 season stands out as the most gruelling of all.

"I think the worst one was when I was preparing for my second season in Formula 1, so 2014," he said.

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The car was set to be overweight, and the team turned to him to trim down as much as possible. And trim down he did.

“I was so focussed just on trying to be the best and trying to be as lightweight as I can,” he said. "In the end [I] then paid the consequences for it."

The pressure to shed weight was driven by the understanding that even a slight difference in a driver's weight could translate into crucial time on the track. A difference of 20 kilos, as seen between Bottas and his competitor Felipe Massa, could equate to half a second per lap.

"Things got a bit out of hand, try to train more and eat less," the Finn admitted. "It just became an obsession."

The obsession with weight loss began to overshadow other aspects of his preparation, leading to overtraining and mental exhaustion. This approach affected Bottas psychologically, impacting his concentration and overall performance during races, and he admitted that some races were 'really really challenging'.

Bottas acknowledged that there has since been a positive shift in the approach toward driver weight and general mental health in the near decade since his nightmare 2014.

"Thank god nowadays we've got the driver plus the seat minimum weight thing, so it's a lot healthier [of a] sport now than it used to be," he said.

Why was 2014 such a tough year for Bottas?

The difficulties Bottas encountered throughout 2014 were closely tied to the new regulations. The year marked a complete transformation for F1 cars. The iconic 2.4-litre V8 engine that used to scream its way to 18,000 RPM was swapped out for an entirely fresh power unit, a 1.6-litre V6 turbo engine.

“The cars were 50 kilos heavier than they'd been in the previous season," F1 Journalist Tom Clarkson explained,. "Primarily, that's the batteries in terms of weight, it was a job for the teams to stay within the weight limit.

“What do you do? You just have to make things as light as possible, and that includes the drivers. Many drivers would do without the one-and-a-half kilo drinks bottle, for example, just to save weight.”

It wasn't just Bottas who faced difficulties. Red Bull instructed Daniel Ricciardo to reduce his racing weight by 4.5lbs, while rumours suggested that Nico Hulkenberg's size might have prevented him from being in contention for the then-available McLaren seat.