Meet the F1 star with a pet badger called Nigel

A picture of a badger playing hide and seek — Photo: © IMAGO

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Meet the F1 star with a pet badger called Nigel

Valtteri Bottas is back and he has a pet badger

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 3 March 2026 21:54

It's that time of year where F1's brightest stars reveal all the weirdest and wackiest facts about them, allowing fans to get to know who they are really supporting ahead of a new season.

The F1 2026 grid has plenty of familiar faces returning after the driver lineups received a major shakeup the previous year, with a whopping five rookies on the 2025 grid.

There is just a singular rookie this season however in the form of Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad, the latest in a long line of Red Bull junior drivers to get the call up to the pinnacle of motorsport.

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And whilst the pressure is on for Lindblad to perform in his first year under a new regulations cycle, it is two former drivers who have got fans excited ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

If Aston Martin even manage to make it to the the starting line in Melbourne, there will be 11 teams lining up on the grid this year thanks to the arrival of Cadillac.

The American squad have orchestrated a comeback for two fan favourite racers who were both axed from F1 in 2024, with Cadillac's first driver duo being made up of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.

To mark their long-awaited return to the sport, both F1 stars made an appearance in a new video on the official F1 YouTube channel titled, 'Meet The 2026 Formula 1 Drivers!'

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Bottas has a pet badger (called Nigel)

In the video, Bottas, Perez and their fellow stars were asked a series of questions to allow fans to get to know them once again after a few months away from the sport.

Among the unusual line of questioning were prompts such as, 'who from the F1 grid would you like to be stuck in a lift with,' to which Bottas revealed that he would pick seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. Why? Because the pair spent five years together as team-mates at Mercedes, and if I may be so bold, perhaps because he knows Hamilton is used to unreliable machinery now that he drives for Ferrari.

The video finished on a high with the stars of the F1 2026 grid being asked, 'if you could adopt an animal, real or mythical, what would it be?'

Many went down the mythical route in response to the lighthearted question, with Hamilton opting to take care of a dragon should the unlikely opportunity ever arise, but Bottas threw the line of questioning entirely off course with a hilarious reveal that he already has a pretty unusual pet.

"Well I kind of already have a pet badger," the Finnish racer declared, before adding: "But, if I could adopt another one I would love a pet Galah... a Galah is kind of like a parrot, it lives in Australia like a pink bird, and they can actually speak and stuff so that would be the next one."

Understandably, the F1 video team were not satisfied with Bottas brushing over the topic of his pet badger, asking the Cadillac star to reveal more.

A voice behind the camera could be heard saying: "You need to explain more, we need to know," prompting Bottas to say: "So at my place in Monaco there's a pet badger that comes every night basically.

"His name is Nigel, he eats the cat food every night, all of it. There you go!"

When does the 2026 F1 season start?

Valtteri Bottas will be back in action when the 2026 season starts in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix.

The first race of the year takes place on Sunday, March 8, at 3pm local time (AEDT), 4am GMT, and 11pm ET.

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here she realised her background in journalism and love of motorsport could be combined, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work more closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan which she hopes to build on.

View full biography

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