Relentless

This year’s Formula 1 season will see VALTTERI BOTTAS driving for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport. The 27-year-old is considered an underdog, but his sights are set high – on the world title no less. We pay Bottas a visit in his home country of Finland

- Alexandros Stefanidis

The helmet weighs seven kilogrammes. When Valtteri Bottas moves his head from right to left or nods it up and down, you can see his T-shirt absorbing all the sweat that these movements generate, becoming darker by the minute. 45 minutes of neck-strengthening training. 45 minutes subjected to the centrifugal forces of a Formula 1 curve – forces comparable to those that pilots withstand. Formula 1 drivers have a slight build and are not particularly tall. But seeing them without a shirt and the amount of training they put in is immediately apparent. Bottas is 1.73 m tall and weighs 70 kilogrammes. His neck is thick and muscular, and his triceps wind around his upper arm like steel cable.

A few hours later, a typical February evening in Finland. Windy, wet, –18 degrees Celsius. The region, 100 kilometres north of Helsinki, is covered in snow for half of the year, its lakes resting below thick ice. That a native of this area, where most children take up ice hockey as a hobby, has made it into Formula 1 seems like a winter fairy tale.

Bottas grew up in Nastola, a municipality so small that even many Finns have never heard of it. And while he now lives in Monaco, he still owns a wooden lakeside cabin back in his hometown. Like the small sauna hut next door, the cabin painted in a greyish blue with white stripes. Its terrace looks out across the lake and, to its right and left, fir, birch and aspen trees stand tall like guardians of the peace. This lakeside cabin is Bottas’ retreat.

His first race in Australia, where he will come in third behind Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, is a good six weeks away. Today, wrapped up warm in a woolly hat, thick down jacket, thermal trousers and dark boots, Bottas stands on his terrace and points at a square hole in the frozen lake – his dad sawed it for him the evening before – and wonders aloud if he’ll take a sauna later.