Bottas "found the love for driving again" during rally experience

Valtteri Bottas tried his hand at rally driving during the winter break ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 season. In the following few months, Bottas stormed to victory in Australia and recorded a further four podiums in the first five races. 

In an interview on the official Formula 1 website, Bottas reveals how the rally driving experience enabled him to fall back into love with motorsport. It seems as if this helped ignite his strong start. 

"It was the plan, to do something completely different and for fun. It was my first ever rally and I only had two test days before it, so for that, it was really good and I really enjoyed it. I found the love for driving again. So, actually, I still do some test days every now and then with the rally car and I'm planning on doing more in the future," Bottas said. 

"With these small events and test days, there's no politics or anything. It's just purely driving, enjoying it, discovering how to be quicker and so on." 

Bottas hasn't secured his Mercedes seat alongside Lewis Hamilton for the 2020 Formula 1 season. He currently sits in second place in the F1 world championship, but a drop in results has cut his title chances down. 

The Finnish driver has already performed better in 2019 compared to 2018.