Valtteri Bottas told a story that is nothing short of incredible that happened during the Miami Grand Prix weekend: his company car was stolen while he was getting ready to head to the circuit.
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The Cadillac F1 driver explained on the What’s Next? podcast that he had chosen to stay in an Airbnb in Fort Lauderdale, north of Miami, to avoid the traffic jams during the Grand Prix weekend.
Bottas specifies that he was staying in “a nice neighborhood with a low crime rate”, which makes the incident even more surprising.
Cold shower…
The Finn recounts that he was in the shower on Saturday morning, before the Sprint race, when he received a call from his coach Paul Harris, who was also staying in the house: “I was in the shower and Paul calls me: ‘The car is gone.’ I didn’t believe it. I went outside and the Escalade was no longer there,” says Bottas.
His Cadillac Escalade had been stolen even though the keys were inside the house and the vehicle was locked. The incident immediately complicated his journey to the circuit.
“Obviously, I was going to be late for the track because I had to find another means of transport. Fortunately, they sent us another Escalade to get to the circuit,” he explains.
But the most worrying part came next: Bottas suddenly remembered that his Formula 1 paddock pass was in the stolen car. “And then I thought: ‘My paddock pass is in the car…’”, he recounts.
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A thief not really a fan
With humor, Bottas then joked that the thief could have almost passed as him all day at the circuit: “He had all the opportunities: VIP parking, paddock access, entry to the team…”, the Finn quips.
Fortunately, the vehicle was finally found the next day in a neighborhood considered dangerous. Due to the presence of the paddock pass and the secured access it allowed, the FBI got involved in the investigation. “The police and the FBI got involved because someone could have used the vehicle and my pass to enter the circuit,” explains Bottas.
According to him, the thieves probably had no interest in Formula 1 itself: “Apparently, they just used the car to commit another crime before abandoning it. In my mind, it looked like a getaway car or something like that. It’s sad… but also quite incredible. It had never happened to me in my entire life.”
Under high surveillance
After the incident, very important security measures were put in place around their accommodation. Cadillac provided a new identical SUV, but Bottas feared it might also be stolen. “We wondered: ‘They might come back to take this one too, now that they know it’s easy.’”
The team then hired an armed security guard to watch the Airbnb all night, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. “Bulletproof vest, full gear… I think the neighbors wondered what was going on,” Bottas says laughing.
Despite this particularly unusual mishap, the Finn was still able to participate in Cadillac’s first home Grand Prix in Formula 1, even though the race was more difficult sportingly as he finished 18th, behind his teammate Sergio Pérez. But that doesn’t tell us where the Escalade ended up?
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