F1 driver says FBI is looking into what happened at the Miami Grand Prix.
Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas shared that the FBI is now involved after his rental car was stolen during the Miami Grand Prix weekend.
Formula 1’s newest team, in their 11th season, brought some big upgrades to Miami after a five-week break. Things looked promising—Sergio Perez was just half a second shy of making it past Q1 in sprint qualifying, and both Perez and Bottas managed to race closely with the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in the main race.
Even with these improvements, there’s still a lot of work ahead to move the American team further up the leaderboard.
While the team was feeling good about their progress on Sunday, Bottas had a more stressful weekend personally. He explained that his rental car was stolen from the driveway of his Airbnb in Fort Lauderdale just hours before the sprint race on Saturday.
This led to some chaos as he had to find another way to get to the track—and his FIA paddock pass was inside the stolen car.
On his podcast, Bottas said, “I got back Friday like normal, parked the car, took a quick shower, and went to bed early. The car keys were inside the house, and the car was locked. Saturday morning, about 15 minutes before leaving for the track, my assistant Paul Harris called me asking where I was. I said, ‘I’m next door,’ and he told me the car was gone. I went outside and the Escalade was gone. The keys were still inside on the table.”
He added, “Obviously, I was going to be late because we had to find another ride. Luckily, they sent another Escalade to take us to the track. Then I realized my paddock pass was in the car, so I didn’t have it. I figured out a way in, and the FBI got involved. They are now doing a full investigation.”
Bottas also joked that the FBI quickly found the stolen car in a “high-crime area.” He laughed, “The thief got the VIP parking, walked to the paddock, signed in, and went to the team. They had my pass but didn’t seem too interested in the F1 race!”