Valtteri Bottas has given some insight into why he’s launched a 2024 calendar packed with images of him with no clothes on.
The Finn sent the the internet into meltdown in 2023 with a picture of his backside, and that has inspired him to make a calendar for 2024 with twelve similar images, all with the aim of raising funds for charities including prostate cancer research.
Available to buy at bottass.com, the Alfa Romeo driver revealed how the idea came into being:
“Last year when I launched that one photo it was quite popular and raised funds,” Bottas said to the press at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
“And then we [Bottas and German photographer Paul Ripke] started to joke about the idea of there being a full calendar.
“Then, closer to November, and Movember month, we started to think we could do something really good and decided yeah let’s do it for charity.
“Since the launch it’s about 50k euros that we’ve raised and the aim is to get 100k for charity and mainly prostate cancer research.”
Bottas talks men’s health
Clearly a topic important to him, Bottas then explained why prostate cancer research in particular was something that he wanted to raise money for.
“It’s Movember and I know some people who have had issues with this kind of thing and I think many men aren’t able to speak about those kind of things so I went all out to show that it’s a human body and you don’t need to be shy.
“I got a message from my mum, she doesn’t understand English that well, and she was like are you sure that’s the path you want to go down, but I explained it was for charity.
“We had so much fun making it and taking the pictures and we had an art gallery on Monday and the people that came were so confused because they had no idea [prior] but eventually they got that it was for charity.”
