You Ask The Questions: Valtteri Bottas

What's something you wish you could tell your younger self? And is there something you've regretted doing in your motorsport career? – Milla Ács

Valtteri Bottas: "I always tend to say, I wouldn't say anything to my younger self, because I wouldn't want to change my future, because I'm here, I'm doing what I love. I've already had a long career, I'm still going, so that's why I probably wouldn't say anything. I would just leave me doing my thing.

"And, nothing I regret. I've always tried everything I can in my career, and I still do."

If you could have raced in any other era (eg: 30s, 50s, 70s, etc.), which would you choose? – Gareth Williams

VB: "I would go back to 90s. That's when I started following Formula 1. The cars, they looked really fun to drive, got a lot lighter engines, sounded great, the racing seemed really pure. So yeah, if I could jump back to 90s, I would do that."

If you could pick three team-mates from any period, now or previous years in F1, who would they be and why? – Paul

VB: "Three probably would be Mika Hakkinen, my childhood hero. Then it would be Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. I think that would be a pretty solid team.

Bottas would love to have Senna and Hakkinen (pictured at McLaren in 1993) as his team-mates alongside Schumacher

Photo by: Patrick Behar / Corbis via Getty Images

"Reasons for those, I think it's pretty obvious. They're all world champions, they're all legends of the sport. All very quick, but at the same time very smart."

How does Finland produce so many world-class drivers? – Steve Butler

VB: "It's a good question. I think the mentality of Finns suits pretty well for motorsports. We like to be in control, we like to be in our own space, which is normally what a racing car is, and we can stay calm in stressful situations."

Now you say that, I think it's because you go in the sauna and then jump in icy lakes.

VB: "Could be that as well, in combination."

What would be one piece of technical advice and one piece of mental advice you would give a driver in their first year of car racing like F4? – James Fleuty

VB: "First technical advice would be, really learn the set-up options you have, what they do to the car, how it affects the balance, how it affects how you need to drive the car. So really play around with the set-ups a lot in your first year to get that knowledge of what everything does to the car, if it makes it slower or faster, trickier or easier to drive. So, try different things.

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing, answers Autosport readers' questions with Stuart Codling

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar Photographic

"And then other advice would be just keep exploring, mentally be open-minded to try different driving techniques, try and be dynamic, being able to change your driving style for different conditions is very important, not just to stick with one driving style."

If you could relive a race, which one would it be? – Filippo

VB: "If I could relive a race, it probably would be Mugello 2020. I should have won that, but I didn't. There was the safety car restart and I lost the lead. So I would try and somehow see if I could do something again. And it was such a fun track to race as well."

What are the driving characteristics of Cadillac compared to F1 cars you previously drove? Oversteer, understeer, rear stability, etc. – Jukka Korpela

VB: "Every car is obviously different. This one is getting a lot more stable than what we started from. But initially, the big issue has been high-speed rear stability. The car has been quite a bit on the edge in the higher speeds. But the recent upgrade really helped a lot.

"But that's still, I would say, our weakness. We're lacking rear stability. That's why we're sometimes a little bit boxed with the set-up. But otherwise, it has a good front end, which is nice. But we're still lacking stability, that's the main thing."

When were you happiest in your career? – Ian A.

VB: "Probably now. I'm really enjoying it. I've had a different perspective of the sport, having one year looking at the side.

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing, answers Autosport readers' questions

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar Photographic

"So now I think I have much more respect for the sport, everyone involved in the sport. And I think I appreciate how lucky the 22 drivers are to be on the grid."

If you were to leave F1 and switch to another category, where would you like to race? – Lisa C, Dave Warner, Chris Loughran

VB: "First pick would be Indy 500. That's definitely on my bucket list. So that's going to happen one day, hopefully."

Not tempted by the GT stuff?

VB: "Also bad boys in supercars. That's a must."

To whom it may concern: if you had to choose to either never ride a bike again or never swim naked again, which are you choosing and why? – Rayna

VB: "I could deal with swimming with swimming trunks, so I would choose being able to ride my bike."

Valtteri Bottas is a keen cyclist

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

To honour all your achievements in F1, as well as your being the nicest bloke in the paddock, all the galleries and museums in the world have got together and decided to gift you any one item of your choice. Which work of art or object would you choose to keep? – John Bone

VB: "I never had this question, so thank you for it. I'd probably take the OG Mona Lisa. I think it's pretty valuable and it's kind of cool."

It's quite small as well.

VB: "It's smaller than you think, but I'm not really big into art, so I don't know that many other objects, so I would have to choose that."

Right, that is all. Thank you very much, that was quite fun.

VB: "Yeah, it was good. Fan questions, always."

Keep an eye out for Autosport's next You Ask The Questions

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar Photographic