Valtteri Bottas revealed his battles with wildlife after cycling from Malaysia to Singapore for this weekend’s race.
The Finnish driver arrived in Singapore on Wednesday after completing the epic 419km ride, opting to ditch a flight for his bike following last weekend’s Formula One round in Sepang.
Cadillac driver Bottas’ journey involved cycling in darkness and he brushed off some close encounters with wildlife along his route.
‘I saw some snakes, which I was a little bit worried about, but actually they were pretty chill. They were just doing their thing,’ he said.
‘I saw one cobra, one python just crossing the path in front of me. I saw some of those big lizards that you also see here, one was on the path.
‘I had to jump over it on a bike because I saw it last minute. I got chased by one dog, I got stuck behind a group of cows on one small track.
Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas completed his 419km cycle ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix
The Finnish star has now opened up on the experience of riding through the jungle at night and deal with wild animals and snakes en route
After finishing the journey, Bottas awarded himself a certificate of completion (source: Instagram/Valtteri Bottas)
‘The wildest part was the riding at night in the jungle. The noise in there, your mind starts to play games.
‘”What is out there? Who knows what is out there?” But then you just need to crack on and keep going.’
Bottas began his journey after crashing out of the relocated Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, documenting his odyssey on social media.
After arriving in Singapore, he also shared a photo of his ‘certificate of completion’ to commemorate achieving the feat.
Bottas travelled alongside his partner Tiffany Cromwell, who is a professional cyclist from Australia, and needed to make it there by Thursday to fulfil his media commitments ahead of this weekend’s race.
The journey was off-road and on gravel, and on Monday, during the second day of Bottas’ cycle, he covered 161.91km across nearly six hours, before he made up 161 km on Tuesday.
It is an unusual way to travel to a race for an F1 driver, yet it is perhaps no surprise that Bottas is undertaking it given he has a history of completing cycling-related endeavours, often with Cromwell.
This included him qualifying for the Gravel World Championships after coming fifth in an off-road qualifying event in the Czech Republic during the summer.
However, given that event comes this weekend, he will be unable to compete.
In the past, he has also taken part in other gravel races, while he is known to be involved with FNLD GRVL, a yearly race in his native Finland.
Bottas has ten wins in his F1 career, but he has endured a difficult 2026 season with Cadillac after spending last year as Mercedes’ reserve driver.
After 16 races, the 37-year-old is yet to score a point and he has failed to finish eight of those.
