Odds of Valtteri Bottas Supercars future lengthen

Supercars is but one of many options for Valtteri Bottas when he does one day leave Formula 1.

The Finn nowadays has close ties to Australia through his partner, professional cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, and drove the 2016 Bathurst 1000-winning VF Commodore at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival in March.

Then, he said he was open to the prospect of a start in the Great Race himself, and said that driving a Supercars had long been an ambition.

His life after F1 was a topic during the media day ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, where Bottas certainly did not rule out Australian Touring Cars as a home after F1.

However, he was quick to add that he could end up in any number of categories.

“Of course,” said the 33-year-old when asked if he has had thoughts about Supercars.

“[But] Not yet. I’ll just follow the passion and see where I end up.”

Pressed on whether he could do Supercars, Bottas responded, “Could do Supercars, could do IndyCar, could do NASCAR.”

He was then asked about the World Endurance Championship and replied, “Could do WEC, could do rally, could do go-karts.”

The discussion had begun when Bottas was questioned about whether or not recent NASCAR starts for Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button could tempt him to compete in the United States’ biggest motorsport category.

“At the moment, it’s a bit too far away for me,” he said.

“But I think that I will always be driving something because I love driving, and I think there’s many options after my Formula 1 career.

“I haven’t decided one thing so I’m open to anything.”

That much is consistent with comments from the Alfa Romeo Sauber driver late last year, when Chip Ganassi expressed clear interest in having Bottas in his IndyCar team.

The 10-time F1 race winner was flattered, but insisted he had multiple years left in the world championship.

Bottas put on a show in the Tekno Autosports Bathurst winner in Adelaide, but his latest remarks suggest that a Supercars team which would like to field the Finn would face stiff competition from categories which would be far more lucrative and, at least in the case of IndyCar, more suited to his skillset.

Practice 1 at Miami starts on Friday at 14:00 local time/Saturday at 04:00 AEST, with the standard F1 format in play this weekend.