© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Valtteri Bottas enjoys rally racing in his time off from Formula 1. The Finn talks about ‘transferable skills’ betwen the two disciplines, and the physicality of F1.
In an interview with Hypebeast Valtteri Bottas was asked if there are any ‘transferable skills’ between rallying and Formula 1.
“Rallying is definitely a completely different form of motorsport,” said the Finn.
“The driving style is really different. It’s much more reactive and you play a bit more with your instinct, because the whole time you’re basically sliding with the car.
“I mainly do it because I really enjoy it and I think it’s a lot of fun but it’s also good for your car control and I’m sure it supports any other form of driving.
“If you’ve been an F1 driver and you jump into a rally car it’s very different, but for sure you’ll have some kind of sense — or some kind of idea — how to drive it well.
“You’ll figure it out sooner or later. I’ve done two rallies so far and I plan to do it again, probably next winter at the Arctic Rally in Finland.”
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
Bottas was also asked how physical Formula 1 actually is as a sport.
“It’s physical for sure. The more years you have in the sport, in single-seaters, and especially in Formula 1, your body gets used to it, but because we have 23 races and testing it does put a toll on you.
“Obviously the race weekends are good training in itself, strengthening the right places in your body that’s basically being used all the time.
“But other than that, when I have time off I train every day. I love cardio, so I do a lot of sports like cycling or running, but I also do strength training when I can.
“During the off season, we train even harder, sometimes twice a day because you definitely need to be fit.
“But as I said, the more you race, the more you get used to all the g-forces and we experience when we go round the corners lap after lap,” concluded Bottas.
