34-year-old driver now wants to win another championship outside of Formula 1

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Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas has his eyes set on another championship outside of Formula 1 and it stems from his love of gravel cycling.

Valtteri Bottas is unquestionably one of the more eccentric drivers on the grid and is hoping to achieve success on two wheels as well as four.

Speaking to The Advertiser, Bottas was outlining his plans to try and qualify for the Gravel World Series this year.

Formula 1 drivers are no strangers to trying different series, with Fernando Alonso one example after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans and attempting the Dakar Rally.

Lewis Hamilton regularly takes part in various extreme sports during his time off while George Russell has admitted he needed to ask permission from the team to go skiing this winter.

However, Bottas is taking that dedication to compete in sports outside of Formula 1 to the next level.

The Gravel World Series is the championship Bottas is attempting to qualify for but his busy F1 schedule won’t make things easy.

His social media has been full of photos of him training in Australia and looks to be loving his time Down Under.

Spending hours on a bike won’t be harming his fitness either and you can imagine he’ll turn up to pre-season testing in Bahrain next month in top shape.

Bottas to compete in gravel cycling championship

Speaking about one of his favoured pastimes outside of motor racing, Bottas said: “Yeah I’ve set it as a goal for this year because I have a weekend off from my main job during the gravel worlds.

“But obviously my calendar will be super busy so training will be compromised compared to a real cyclist and also how many free weekends I have to try and qualify are limited.

“There are some races that I will have an opportunity to give it a go to qualify for my age group so we will see but it is nice to have other goals alongside F1 racing and I feel it is quite refreshing for me.

“That is still 100 per cent the main job and I still have lots of goals in F1 and want to be around for some time.”

The £150,000-a-week driver will be hoping to avoid a similar fate suffered by one of his rivals last year.

Lance Stroll nearly missed the opening race of the year in 2023 after falling off his bike and hurting both of his wrists.

Bottas will have to avoid that fate when training for his latest championship, especially as a fall on gravel would be particularly painful.

The Finn will know he needs to be careful but that’s easier said than done for someone who’s job is to go as fast as possible.