Bottas spoke of how he had decided to stay in Fort Lauderdale, to the north of the circuit around Hard Rock Stadium, rather than in Miami in order to avoid the worst of the traffic in the latter city over the F1 weekend. However, that decision led to a stressful Saturday morning.
Bottas spoke of how he had rented an AirBnb “in a nice area, with a low crime rate”. But even though the keys to the car were kept inside the house, and the car itself was locked, the Finn was alerted to the fact something was wrong while he was in the shower before heading to the track for the Sprint race and Grand Prix qualifying.
The racer said: “I was in the shower, and then Paul Harris, who also stayed in the AirBnb, is calling me. ‘The car is gone’. I couldn’t believe it. I went outside, opened the door and the Escalade has vanished. Obviously, I was going to be late for the track, because we had to find another way of transport Luckily, they sent another Escalade which took us to the track. And then I was like, ‘Oh, my paddock pass was in the car’.
“And then I was like, ‘Oh, my paddock pass was in the car’. I didn’t have a paddock pass, but we found a solution for that. The FBI got involved, full investigation. But [the thief] had all the opportunities for that day, with the VIP parking. Walk to the paddock, sign in, go to the team.
“But the next day, the car was found, dumped somewhere in a dodgy area, a high-crime area. So the police and FBI got involved, for this reason: We had the parking pass, so somebody could have driven the car to the track, they had my pass.
“But [the thief] obviously wasn’t interested about the F1 race. Apparently, they probably just did a crime with the car and dumped it. So in my mind, it must have been like a getaway car or something. It’s sad… but it’s pretty cool! It’s never happened to me in my life.
“We got a replacement car, and identical Escalade. But then we were like, ‘Are they going to get this one as well? Because now they know that it seems pretty easy’. So we had to get a security guy in for the AirBnb from 7pm to 7am, armed with a full vest, kit and everything. I think the neighbours were wondering what was going on. But it was all good.”