Valtteri Bottas has clarified his stance on the Italian tax issue, insisting Formula 1 drivers have no problem paying tax, as long as the rules are made clear in advance.
He also felt his original comments had been trimmed down to make him sound worse than he meant.
Speaking at Sepang, Bottas said drivers would rather not end the 2026 season at Imola, over fears they could face extra tax.
His comments followed reports that Italy’s tax police, the Guardia di Finanza, had sent letters to F1 drivers asking for returns on income earned in the country.
What the report says about the letters and the Imola concern
According to the Crash report, several F1 drivers received letters from the Guardia di Finanza.
The letters asked them to file tax returns on income they earned while racing in Italy. They are said to relate to events from several years ago, not the current season.
Bottas addressed the story directly on Thursday. “I don’t know if you’ve heard about the Italian taxes? No driver wants to really race in Italy because of recent events, what happened,” he said.
Formula 1 is currently set to close out 2026 with a Qatar and Abu Dhabi double header.
Crash reported that the war in the Middle East could put those races in doubt. Imola was mentioned as a possible stand-in if either event had to be cancelled. Nothing has been confirmed.
Bottas himself expects the calendar to stay as planned. “Abu Dhabi, there’s no tax. Right? I think everyone would like to race somewhere warmer. For now, what I’ve heard, we’re still going to Qatar and Abu Dhabi,” he added.
Why Bottas says drivers are fine with tax when the rules are clear
Bottas pushed back on how his remarks were used. He said reporters had picked the sharpest lines to make him look bad.
“It’s one of those classic examples, where I explained about the situation and they only took just the best bits, to make it look really bad for me,” he told Sky Sports F1 after Friday practice at Sepang.
His actual position is simple. “Honestly, we have no problem with paying taxes – as long as we know,” he said. That is the real heart of the Italian tax issue for the drivers. It was never about the amount. It was about the warning.
He explained that paying tax abroad is already normal for the grid. Bottas said F1 races in many countries, and in more than half of them there is some tax to pay.
“And that’s okay, as long as we know,” he said. What frustrated drivers, he explained, was that the letters went back seven or eight years.
Bottas added that drivers had been given clear guidance on Italy before. “We always got told we don’t have to file anything for Italy, otherwise we would have,” he said.
Not everyone on the grid treats it as a big deal. Max Verstappen dismissed the row outright: “There is no tax issue. You just have to pay tax.”
Haas driver Ollie Bearman took a lighter view. He joked that “the tax complication is a bit less relevant to me than some of the others.”
What this means for drivers, Imola and the late-season picture
For now, the effect on this season’s finale is unclear. Crash ties the Imola contingency to the Qatar and Abu Dhabi races only. Nothing in Bottas’s comments suggests organisers are planning to switch venues.
The bigger point for drivers is precedent, not just this one race. If letters about years-old income can arrive without warning, drivers feel less comfortable racing anywhere the tax rules haven’t been spelled out in advance.
It continues a year in which Bottas has spoken plainly about pressure on and off the track, something we touched on in our Bottas coverage. He’s no stranger to off-track commitments drawing scrutiny either, as we found in our Race of Champions piece.
The wider calendar politics around a possible Middle East contingency sit alongside other late-season storylines in our talking points roundup.
Readers wanting the broader technical picture of how F1 rules and logistics shape a season can find more in our motorsport tech crossover.
