Millions of people know a name of Valtteri Bottas as a Formula 1 race winner and an ex-Mercedes teammate of Lewis Hamilton. However beneath the shiny race suits and the champagne covered front steps lies an even greater story the one that began miles away in Finland well distant to the reaches of the world stage. Recently in an interview Bottas shared about how obsessed he used to get, early on in his life when he started racing how this mental pressure that he was putting on himself nearly cost him not only enjoyment of racing but also parts of himself completely.

Bottas was single-minded since early in life. He acknowledges that racing took over his life since the days when he was six years old. He was so ambitious that virtually everything was left behind; the school, his friends and family life. He did not only love the sport but was obsessed with it. To him, he had to be perfect in Formula 1 in order to succeed in that competition. This philosophy, which was quoted again and again in his adolescence and youth, was downright poisonous. He was his worst judge and he never gave himself a chance to make a mistake or even have some time to relax.

Bottas explains that such a strategy had its costs. He was already experiencing the symptoms of mental burnout in his early twenties when he had not even secured a full-time F1 seat. There are instances when he did not even enjoy racing. Fans may bristle at that statement because all they know about the high-speed glamour of the sport, but at the highest level a truth lurks that is not always obvious. He was emotionally lacking and detached. Racing was mechanical, robotic a routine based on fear that one is not good enough.

He likens his younger version with the sniper, someone who had closed his or her emotional heart in order to concentrate. At least in the case of Bottas, this mindset was not the personality trait, but the defence mechanism. It is how he dealt with the huge pressure he put on himself. He did not give way to emotions. In his thoughts, to be weak was vulnerable. However, with time, that philosophy started falling apart.

His changing point was during his years in Mercedes. Even though he was in a position to race at the front of the grid, accompanied by the availability of championship winning machines; Bottas was still performing poorly within the team. He was under a lot of pressure and was always compared to Hamilton, one of the most successful drivers in the history of this sport. Still, even in such a place, where everything depended on results, starting with the very mindset, Bottas started to reevaluate it.

He began to take his mental health seriously, thanks to the professionals and individuals who are close to him. He discussed how harmful the always on attitude had been to him. Relationship with a psychologist assisted him to have improved emotional abilities. He started to refactor and release instead of bottling everything. Gradually he permitted himself the pleasure of living off the racetrack.

The change of attitude could be seen better when he got out of Mercedes. In the changed environment (he is now at Stake F1 (previously Alfa Romeo), Bottas seems calmer, more introspective, and in charge of his story. He no longer aims to chase perfection. He is not out to race in desperation, but purposefully. It is not devoid of stress but it is compensated with activities such as cycle racing and photography, as well as, having a personal life to which belongs his girlfriend, a pro-rider cyclist named Tiffany Cromwell. The fondness he has towards Australia, its way of living, and its simplicity provide him with space, which the F1 bubble does not normally give.

So the story of Bottas is not all about speed, strategy or racecraft. It is about the unseen human consequence of perfection. It is about the inner war that is taking place most of the time in the paddock. When he makes an address in public, he will be following a stream of sportsmen who have been questioning the notion that maximum athletic performance demands that we shut away our emotions.

Nowadays, Valtteri Bottas is a mature competitor, not less serious but more thoughtful. More grounded. More honest. The outcomes can change, yet the feeling of being balanced is here to stay. That may very easily be his greatest victory.

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