The mental image of Valtteri Bottas at Coachella is already doing more for Cadillac‘s marketing than any livery reveal could. Finnish, famously deadpan, dressed head to toe in cowboy gear, hanging out with Daniel Ricciardo in the desert while Sabrina Carpenter played somewhere in the distance. It is a sentence that should not parse, and yet here we are, ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, with Bottas back on Cadillac duty and apparently in no rush to repeat the experience.
The Coachella-F1 crossover was the talk of the gap between the Japanese Grand Prix and Miami.
Bottas spent his time in California stretching his cycling legs at the Sea Otter Classic, a 60-mile gravel race he finished third in, then swapped gravel to glitter for the festival’s second weekend.
Dressed in full cowboy style, he met up with former Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo at the festival , and the internet did the rest. A boomerang of the two of them set to a Katy Perry track did the rounds on Tiffany Cromwell and Paul Ripke’s Instagram stories, and X users instantly christened the reunion “UncChella.”
Why a Cadillac Driver Spent His Off-Week in the Desert
The 2026 Coachella event ran from April 10 to 19 at Empire Polo Club in Indio, with Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G headlining the festival’s 25th edition . The grid scattered across California in the run-up to Miami.
Alex Albon went the other way, opting for a low-key “no-chella” trip to Los Angeles for a Dodgers game, vineyards and golf.
But Bottas, who has been in a relationship with Australian cyclist Tiffany Cromwell since February 2020, thought best he find out what this whole Coachella thing was.
While he’s much more into endurance cycling, photography projects with Paul Ripke, and a growing willingness to look slightly ridiculous on purpose, that Aspen stream calendar that raised tens of thousands for charity made his cowboy get up look tame.
The Coachella Bit Bottas Sounds Ready to Leave Behind
Bottas has used his weekly podcast with Ripke to walk through the Coachella experience alongside the Sea Otter race and what he called the “screaming fans” of California, and the takeaway from people who have listened is that the novelty has worn off fast. The crowds, the heat, the influencer choreography around every brand activation… Coachella in 2026 is a festival where the influencer-overrun reputation is real, with civilian attendees posing for photo ops and free swag, although the music itself is still genuinely cool . One trip is plenty.
Talking to Sky Sports ahead of this year’s Miami Grand Prix, he discussed it further.
“Don’t be,” he told a journalist when he said he was jealous of his ‘Coachella adventure‘. “It wasn’t my thing. Too many people, man.”
He laughed at the interviewer who was clearly taken aback by the Finnish racing driver.
“I’m glad I went, but I’m not going back.”
Miami is the Cadillac’s American homecoming weekend, and after a challenging but successful start to the Formula 1 season and, so far, ahead of Aston Martin in the constructors’ standings, it looks ready to embrace the crows at the Hard Rock Stadium.
