Valtteri Bottas, in his 5 years with Mercedes, enjoyed a cordial, friendly relationship with Lewis Hamilton. The duo separated when the team decided to bring in George Russell from Williams. Since then, Bottas joined Alfa Romeo and has put up some impressive performances. His life outside of the track looks pretty sorted as well. The Finnish driver spent a good chunk of time off-season time in Australia, taking in the laid-back attitude of the land down under. The Alfa Romeo driver also grew a mullet and a mustache. He recently showed up for a media briefing in a black tank top, shorts, and flip-flops. Valtteri also promoted his gin brand, Oath Gin, while in Australia for the recently concluded race. This new avatar has not just left his fans swooning over him, but also his good mate Lewis.

Much of the credit for the change in his life has to go to his Olympic cyclist girlfriend, Tiffany Cromwell. Tiffany is Australian herself and well-versed in the laid-back lifestyle. Bottas himself recently admitted that his current style and personality would have never come out if he was still at Mercedes. He attributed the reason to the different cultures of different teams.

Lauding him for finding his mojo, Lewis, in a recent interview, as quoted by Motorsportweek, said, “It’s great, I just saw Valtteri in flip flops right now with his tan lines around his socks, his sock line!”

“It’s great to see him flourish and feeling more and more a part of himself and knowing where he wants to go.”

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Hamilton also talked about why it is important for every fellow F1 driver of his to discover themselves. He stressed on their busy schedules. Which makes it all the more important for them to find things that make them happy.

What Valtteri Bottas said about the look he carried into the paddocks

As with any other profession, newbies are always expected to behave in a certain way. That way is always a prim and proper, formal approach that they carry until they gain a certain amount of experience in the field. F1 is not different. Bottas feels that he would have never dared to enter the paddocks in flip-flops as a rookie.

He told, “I think that as a rookie I wouldn’t have come to the paddock with flip-flops and so on. Now it’s a bit easier to set up things and I don’t take myself too serious. So it definitively changes with time.”

“In this sport, as a rookie you have to go through the system, you’re almost educated on how to behave, how to brand yourself and so on, but then comes a point of ‘this is who I am, deal with it’.”

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How do you like Valtteri’s new avatar? Makes you want to forget about your problems, doesn’t it?