F1 star Valtteri Bottas tackles 350km ride from Sepang to Singapore

Valtteri Bottas

F1 star is cycling 350km between grands prix on epic Singapore journey

Valtteri Bottas is NOT be taking the plane to Singapore

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Monday 5 October 2026 22:28

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F1 driver Valtteri Bottas loves cycling. That's not news to anyone who's remotely aware of him out of the cockpit, but it's true.

This, however, was a little unexpected. F1 will move from Sepang, Malaysia to Marina Bay, Singapore this week to close off a triple-header with a spectacular night race, and the Finn decided to make the journey...unconventionally.

You've probably guessed how at this point. Yep, Bottas is cycling to the next race on the calendar.

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The Cadillac driver set off after the race on Sunday evening, handily tracking his rides (as ever) on Strava. That's how we know that he covered off 35 miles of the journey before he found somewhere to sleep for the night, on the road (and we use 'road' advisedly, looking at some of the pictures he's uploaded) for just two hours.

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Bottas making headway in epic journey

Monday's travels were much more extensive, with the whole day to burn - with Bottas posting details of his 100-mile, five-and-three-quarter-hour ride late in the day local time.

Again, the 37-year-old Finn appears to have been riding on a number of gravel and dirt roads on his cyclocross bike, making his pace quite impressive. Riding on knobbly tyres on mud and gravel, unsurprisingly, is much more of an effort than a nice tarmacked road on slicks.

The 135 miles Bottas has covered so far puts him more than halfway to Marina Bay, with around 120 miles left to cover from his overnight stop in Bukit Bakri. However, that assumes he'll use the main road and nice, straight highway which - spoiler alert – he probably won't.

It's tricky to tell exactly how much distance he'll need to cover without knowing his exact planned route, but so far he looks to be sticking roughly to the coastline wherever possible. How scenic!

He's not the only driver who's not just jumping on a plane for the trip though. Well-known paddock photographer Kym Illman has revealed that Charles Leclerc's flight was turned back after he missed his landing time (likely due to the 90-minute delay to Sunday's race start) and the Ferrari star had to take a four-hour road trip instead.