Bottas' car was stolen during the Miami GP, and the FBI got involved

Valtteri Bottas had enough to think about heading into the Miami Grand Prix weekend. What he did not anticipate was starting his Saturday scrambling to find a ride to the track — because his team car had vanished overnight.

Bottas had chosen Fort Lauderdale as his base for the Miami weekend rather than opting for the more obvious central Miami or South Beach locations. "Fort Lauderdale is the same or even less of a distance to the track. There's a bit less traffic. That town is a bit more chill than Miami. I feel like it's a bit more real. That's why I stay in Fort Lauderdale. I prefer it to Miami. For me, Miami is a bit much," he explained.

Keys Inside, Car Gone

"I got back Friday as normal. Drove our car to the driveway, had a quick dinner, early to bed. Car keys are inside the house. Car is locked," the Finnish driver recounted.

The discovery came the following morning under circumstances that were, at first, almost comically confusing. Fifteen minutes before he was due to leave for Hard Rock Stadium, Bottas was in the shower when he received a call from Paul Harris, who was also staying at the same Airbnb.

"He was like, 'Oh, I was asking where did you go?' I said, 'What do you mean?' 'Well, the car is gone.'"

Bottas stepped outside to confirm what seemed impossible. "The Escalade has vanished. Keys are still inside on the table. I can see them like, 'What? What? How?'"

FBI Called In as Complications Mount

With the car gone and race day fast approaching, the complications quickly multiplied. A replacement Escalade was dispatched to get Bottas to the circuit, but upon arrival, he realised another problem: his paddock pass had been left in the stolen vehicle. "I was like, 'Oh, my paddock pass was in the car.' I didn't have a paddock pass. So anyway, I found a solution for that."

The reason law enforcement — including the FBI — became involved extended beyond the theft itself. The stolen car contained not just Bottas's paddock pass, but also a VIP parking pass, meaning whoever had taken the Escalade theoretically had everything needed to drive directly into the circuit compound.

"We had the parking pass, so somebody could have driven the car to the track. They had my pass, but they obviously weren't interested in the F1 race," Bottas noted, with a touch of dry humour.

The concern was serious enough to warrant a full investigation, but the outcome suggested the thieves had entirely different priorities. It was a weekend that saw the Formula 1 paddock buzzing on multiple fronts — Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull had all arrived with significant aerodynamic upgrades in their fight to close the gap at the front — yet few stories were as surreal as Bottas's Saturday morning.

A Getaway Car Theory

The Escalade was found the following day, abandoned in what Bottas described as a "dodgy area" — a high-crime neighbourhood with no apparent connection to the race. The evidence pointed to one conclusion.

"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, you know?"

For Bottas, the whole episode carried a certain absurdist logic. "It's sad that we lost the car, but it's pretty cool," he concluded — a remarkably composed reaction from a driver who spent his sprint race Saturday navigating a paddock without his own access pass, after his luxury SUV served an unplanned criminal purpose somewhere in South Florida.