Valtteri Bottas has stated why he believes it is the ideal time to open up more about his personal life and experiences to his fans.
Valtteri Bottas has explained why he wanted to open up more about his personal life experiences with fans recently, particularly his difficulties with mental health.
In December, the Finn discussed the challenges he had near the end of his second season in Formula One in 2014, when he began to feel the pressure of the excessive weight demands placed on drivers at the time in a podcast for Finnish broadcaster Supla.
Bottas also spoke about how the death of Jules Bianchi in 2015 affected him, to the point that he wondered if he still wanted to be a part of the sport.
The former Mercedes driver said that he wanted to talk about these topics so that his followers might learn more about his personal life.
“I started this podcast in Finland, it’s actually in Finnish,” Bottas told media including RacingNews365.com. “It’s not so easy to translate!
“But it’s basically a podcast of, I think seven or eight episodes about me, really open talking about my experiences so far in my life and career.
“And I mainly did it for people, especially in Finland, because they don’t really know me that well. I’ve always been very, certainly with some things, [careful about] what I share in my life, and normally I haven’t really shared much underneath the skin.
“So now I thought it would be, especially for the Finns, [a good time]. I think they have a right to know me a bit better as a human being.”
“Therapeutic” to share experiences
Bottas has found speaking about these difficulties to be relatively easy, and in fact considers it to be a type of treatment.
“It wasn’t difficult,” he explained. “I’ve been speaking about any topics very openly, and there’s nothing that I can’t say in that podcast.
“It has actually been almost therapeutic to speak about certain topics, [being] very open, [saying things] just like they are.
“So it’s been nice, and I’m sure about some things there will be some talks or headlines, but I don’t care. It’s nice to share my experiences.”
Following the conclusion of his five-year contract with Mercedes, Bottas will join Alfa Romeo in 2022.
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