Valtteri Bottas will leave Mercedes at the end of the season to join Alfa Romeo in 2022. He pushed Lewis Hamilton in his title-challenging runs in 2019 and 2020. But he recently said that his pursuit of perfection had an impact on his mental health.
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Bottas remembered back in 2014 when he was at Williams, where he decided to lose weight and get fitter. The Finnish rider mentions that he trained to the limit to get fitter. But in his pursuit of perfection, Bottas fell into more negative thoughts that influenced his private life and mental well-being.
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Valtteri Bottas remembers the darkest time of his life
As reported by Iltalehti. fi, the Mercedes driver mentioned that he put on more weights for maximum exercise. He blamed himself and his own stubbornness for his deteriorating mental health in 2014.
“There was talk of a few flights. An ex-girlfriend (Emilia) told me that I hope the flight goes well. I said something, if it fell, what then? Then I’ll just get out of here. Something like these thoughts came out that nothing matters.
In the middle of that season I got into a pretty bad overworked state due to my own stubbornness. We had to keep the weights to a minimum, and that became a glove for me, ”said Bottas. [Translated by Google]
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Formula 1 F1 – Spanish Grand Prix – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain – May 8th 2021, Mercedes Valtteri Bottas during the press conference after qualifying in third place FIA / handout via REUTERS
However, Valtteri gave an update, stating that his mental health has improved since then.
“I had to go to the scales every morning and evening. It had to look less and less. I have a good feeling about it. I thought it was good for me, but in the long run it wasn’t, ”said the Finn.
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Since then, Bottas has become stronger both mentally and physically. He went head to toe against Hamilton, pushed him to the limit in qualifying and outperformed him in a number of races. He can be proud of helping Mercedes win 4 constructors’ championships in a row.
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The post Valtteri Bottas’ plight sheds light on the dangers of extreme weight loss in Formula 1 first appeared on monter-une-startup.
