Video: F1 ace Valtteri Bottas drives a V8 Supercar in Adelaide

Valtteri Bottas has become the latest Formula One star to drive an Australian V8 Supercar, sampling a Bathurst 1000-winning Holden Commodore in Adelaide over the weekend.

The 2019 Australian Grand Prix winner was a special guest at the annual Adelaide Motorsport Festival, which sees generations of racing cars running on a portion of South Australia’s former Formula One and current V8 Supercars circuit.

In a video uploaded to Facebook by the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, Bottas takes to the track in a Holden VF Commodore V8 Supercar – the same car which was driven to victory in the 2016 Bathurst 1000 by Will Davison and Jono Webb.

Due to his limited time in the car and wet conditions, Bottas doesn’t drive the V8 Supercar to its full potential, instead sliding the car around some of the corners and performing a donut on the front straight.

His cameo comes just a handful of months after former Formula One ace Daniel Ricciardo tested a Ford Mustang V8 Supercar in Michigan, while both Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso briefly made an appearance in a pair of Aussie racers before last year’s Australian Grand Prix.

Bottas was also able to sample another race car with Australian history – an Alfa Romeo GTV, previously driven by local motorsport icon Colin Bond and 1980 Formula One champion Alan Jones in the mid-1980s.

Re-numbered to #77 – which Bottas uses on his Alfa Romeo in Formula One – the 10-time Grand Prix winner quickly adjusted to the GTV’s manual transmission, bringing the classic racer back to the pits safely after a handful of laps in the rain.

Bottas has spent most of the Formula One off-season from December to February Down Under with his South Australian girlfriend, Tiffany Cromwell.

During the off-season, Bottas received a mullet haircut and trimmed his beard back to a moustache in order to “fit in” with Australian culture. If you watch the on-board footage closely, you’ll be able to see Bottas’ unique helmet incorporates a painted mullet and moustache.

The guest cameo in Adelaide came one week before this year’s Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit.