My Favourite Things Valtteri Bottas

▶ Mercedes F1 driver Valtteri Bottas won his first Abu Dhabi F1 race on Sunday. Ahead of the event, the Finn spoke to Saeed Saeed

My favourite city is Melbourne. It has a nice vibe and the people are very friendly. The best part about it is it has a lot of nature. I love how the beaches and parks are close by.

My favourite meal is steak. I like it simple and barbecued with just a little bit of vegetables.

My favourite band is Red Hot Chili Peppers. I listen to their music when I want to be lifted up. But I don’t listen to music all the time. I love the sound of nature and I love hearing that stillness when I go for a run.

My favourite fashion item is my watch. So now I am an ambassador with IWC Schaffhausen and part of that was I got to see and appreciate the engineering that goes into these kinds of watches. I do see parallels with that, with the watch world and Formula 1 racing, in that both sides work hard to find new materials to make the product better.

My favourite part of the job is to simply drive an F1 car. I love racing, so to drive the fastest machines-ever is amazing. The bonus on top of that is you drive against some of the best drivers in the world.

My favourite piece of advice that I received is to trust yourself. I know it sounds simple but throughout my career there were times when I faced difficult moments, where I had to trust myself. When you do that, you feel good about yourself and gain some self-confidence to do amazing things.

My favourite thing about Abu Dhabi is how everything here works. As a tourist coming here people are very friendly and the facilities like restaurants and hotels are always great. Also as a driver I always come here in the best time of the year when it comes to the weather, so Abu Dhabi is always good to me.