Bottas flunks parallel parking on Dimoldenberg's Passenger Princess during Barcelona GP weekend

Valtteri Bottas may be one of the most experienced drivers on the Formula 1 grid, but the Cadillac racer could not escape a traffic cone during a parallel parking challenge filmed at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix weekend for Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Passenger Princess YouTube series. The Finnish driver struck a cone on his attempt and promptly awarded himself a “one out of 10” for the manoeuvre.

The episode opened with Bottas in the unfamiliar role of passenger — a position he admitted makes him uncomfortable. He told Dimoldenberg that, beyond professional chauffeurs and his partner Tiffany Cromwell, he prefers to be behind the wheel himself, citing his need to feel in control.

Before the parking segment, the pair practised emergency stops, during which Bottas and Dimoldenberg discussed his nude charity calendar and his pet reindeer, Rosa. Bottas also successfully steered around a cardboard cutout of his Cadillac team-mate Sergio Perez — a small but clean win before the cone incident that followed.

Dimoldenberg fared considerably better in the parking test. Following Bottas’s own instructions, she completed the manoeuvre without touching a single cone and was rewarded with a nine out of ten from the Finn for her overall performance across the session.

Fans were quick to react in the comments. “This is the only time the driver has actually taught Amelia how to drive,” one viewer noted, referencing the series’ format in which Dimoldenberg typically takes the wheel while her guest rides along. Bottas joins a long list of F1 drivers to have appeared on the show, including George Russell, Oliver Bearman, Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Franco Colapinto, Gabriel Bortoleto, Kimi Antonelli and Alex Albon.

Other viewers were equally warm in their responses. “This was the best one yet, Valtteri is such a character when people actually let him speak,” one comment read, while another called him “the most wholesome guy.” A separate fan drew laughs with the observation that Bottas is “the most Aussie bloke on the grid” while Oscar Piastri comes across as “the most Finnish guy” — a role reversal that has become something of a running joke among F1 followers.