With his newfound attitude after leaving Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas is turning his focus to business activities outside of Formula 1, as he potentially prepares for life away from the sport.
Bottas joined Formula 1, finding success with Mercedes from 2017-2021, as he won ten Grand Prix races and finished second in the Drivers’ title race twice.
However, since joining Alfa Romeo in 2022, Bottas has seen his performance slip, not finishing higher than fifth during the season and ending in 10th place in the Drivers’ Standings with just 49 points.
So far, in 2023, Bottas isn’t doing much better with only four points from three races after securing P8 in Bahrain, P18 in Saudi Arabia and P11 in Australia.
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With his on track performance suffering, it’s not surprising that Bottas has a renewed focus on non-F1 activities.
Throughout his career, Bottas has worked with a number of companies via endorsement deals, as well as investing in business ventures, such as Kahiwa Coffee Roastery and Oath Gin.
“For me it’s important. I feel that when I come to a race weekend, I’m quite refreshed,” Bottas explained.
“In the last couple of days, I was working for my gin label and now I turn to racing and it’s cool, it’s fun. For me it works,” he added.
The Formula 1 calendar rarely provides the opportunity for drivers to focus their time outside of the sport, with race weekends, training sessions and briefings keeping them busy.
“Many times, people ask me ‘how do you have time for it?’,” Bottas said.
“But there is, we have off weeks, and even if we have simulator days or sponsors days between the races, in the evenings we still have out personal time.
“So for me it’s important to be able to switch focus to other things.
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“I think that from a few years ago I started to invest in many different things because it is important to have other things, other passions, to do after if your career.
“Because if you drop out [of Formula 1] and you have nothing, you’ll feel quite hectic after being in such a hectic sport. So, for sure, that will be a good thing to have,” he continued.
Bottas hasn’t revealed when he might consider retiring from Formula 1, although it’s unlikely to be in the near future as he has a multi-year deal with Alfa Romeo.