Honorary South Australian Valtteri Bottas is leaning fully into his adopted Aussie persona, with a high-octane expression demonstration session locked in for the 2026 Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival. On Sunday March 1, Bottas will take to the track in a V8-powered Holden HQ Monaro, one of Australia’s most iconic muscle cars, promising noise, smoke and spectacle in equal measure.
Returning as an Adelaide Motorsport Festival ambassador, Bottas will be back in the city just a week before he heads to Melbourne for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, where he’ll line up on the Formula 1 grid with the new Cadillac Formula 1 team. Before that, Adelaide crowds will get a front-row seat to a very different kind of motorsport moment, with Bottas swapping cutting-edge F1 precision for raw, tyre-shredding power.
Bottas’ expression demonstration session is scheduled for 11:30am on Sunday March 1, and it’s shaping up to be one of the festival’s most talked-about highlights. The big-block V8-powered HQ Monaro boasts more than 1000 horsepower and is no stranger to serious performance, having clocked sub-nine-second quarter-mile times as a well-known drag car. Festivalgoers can expect Bottas to unleash power skids and smoke-filled runs, with the Monaro billowing clouds across the event site in true Australian muscle car fashion.
Adding to the excitement, Bottas will also be driving a Formula 1 car during the festival weekend, with further details to be confirmed closer to the event. It’s a rare chance to see one of the world’s elite drivers showcase both sides of his racing personality in the same weekend, from modern F1 machinery to a thundering classic built for brute force.
Off the track, fans will have the opportunity to meet Bottas in the Adelaide Marriott Grand Marquee. Open to all ticketholders, the marquee is the hub for star appearances across the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, giving attendees the chance to see, hear from and meet some of the biggest names in global and Australian motorsport.
The 2026 Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival will once again deliver non-stop on-track action, with no breaks in activity throughout the day. Categories span everything from Formula 1 cars and V8 Supercars to sportscars, touring cars, motorbikes, drift cars and more, ensuring something for every motorsport fan. Beyond the track, the festival brings a relaxed picnic-in-the-park atmosphere, complete with car displays, kids’ zones, bars, food trucks, exhibitors, traders and interactive activations.
With Bottas set to light up the circuit in a 1000-plus-horsepower Monaro, the 2026 festival is shaping up as an unmissable moment on Adelaide’s major events calendar. For full event details and ticket information, head to AdelaideMotorsportFestival.com.au.
