Kravitz offers Bottas an apology for ‘stupid and insensitive’ comments

F1 preview: A lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix

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Ted Kravitz has offered an apology to Valtteri Bottas after he made ‘stupid and insensitive’ comments towards the Alfa Romeo driver during an interview ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix on Thursday. The Formula One reporter made a remark about the Finn’s weight without realising he had previously suffered from an eating disorder and has reached out to say sorry for the error.

Bottas is one of the most experienced drivers in Formula One having first joined the grid with Williams ten years ago. However, he found it somewhat difficult to adapt to the sport at first, revealing during an interview last month that he suffered from an eating disorder in 2014 as he tried to lose 5kg at the request of team bosses.

He overcame the issue with the help of a psychologist and has gone on to have a hugely successful career in the sport. Helping Mercedes to win the Constructors’ Championship on five consecutive occasions between 2017 and 2021 taking five Grand Prix victories in the process.

He now represents Alfa Romeo and was interviewed by Kravitz on Thursday about his hopes for the upcoming season. Ahead of their chat, the pitlane reporter made a throwaway comment about his weight without realising he once had an eating disorder. Kravitz has now revealed he has offered an apology to the 33-year-old for what he had said earlier in the week.

“I want to spend a little bit of time just to tell you about something stupid and insensitive I did, not knowingly, with Valtteri Bottas on Thursday,” he explained on his show Ted’s Notebook. “He’s lost a bit of weight around his jaw and I was quite surprised. I said, ‘Oh, you know, wow, you look so slim and as my mum would say you should eat some more food.’

“‘He was like, no, no, no, I’m slim and I’m healthy’. I thought ‘that was a strange thing to say’ when he said healthy and I was later made aware of an interview he did earlier in this year, which I hadn’t seen, where he was talking about when he had close to what he described as an eating disorder. He’d dieted so much that he was unhealthy and losing weight.

“I felt so terrible about joking about him slimming down that I have since talked to his team and when I see him I’ll clear it up and say I had no idea that he was close to an eating disorder, and apologise for any offence that I had done.

“I thought it was to really impressive to have the bravery to come out and talk about what in the past was an eating disorder and good for Valtteri for speaking out about it.”

Bottas will start in 12th place in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday with lights out in Sahkir at 3pm.

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