Valtteri Bottas explained that raising money for prostate cancer research and awareness of men’s health were the core reasons behind producing his nude calendar.
The story started in Aspen last year when Bottas sent social media into a frenzy with his tongue-in-cheek nude photo relaxing a stream in Colorado after the 2022 Miami Grand Prix.
That photo wound up raising quite a bit of money for charity, a reported €50,000 after 5,000 people bought a printed copy. This year, Bottas decided to take things one step further.
“Last year when I launched that one photo in Aspen and it was quite popular and we actually raised quite a bit of funds,” he said.
“I did quite a bit of stuff with Paul Ripke, he’s a good friend, the photographer.
“Then we started to joke about the idea, imagining if there’s like a full calendar and then yeah, closer to November, Movember month we started to think that actually we could do something really, really good and decided that ‘yeah let’s do it, but for charity’.”
Bottas has succeeded in delivering on the idea of doing something “really good,” having stated that the ‘Bottass’ calendar had raised “about €60,000” when speaking on Thursday ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
At that time the goal was to reach €100,000, having already sold out an initial print run of 10,000 copies.
“It’s mainly for prostate cancer research, so I think it’s for a good cause,” Bottas added. “Movember is focussing on that quite a lot.
“I know some people who’ve had close people to them who’ve had issues with that kind of thing.
“I think with men as well, like Movember focusing on men’s health, many people get quite afraid of speaking about those kind of things.
“And I went all out showing myself, trying to be an example. It’s a human body, you don’t need to be shy.”
Bottas said he’s had many people asking him why he produced the calendar, but that they were easily convinced once he explained the charity aspect.
“I’ve had questions, people asking ‘why did you do that? Why do you want to show your ass?’ But then when I explained the charity aspect, then people kind of get it,” he noted.
“And we had so much fun, you can imagine, making that, taking those pictures.
“We had this art gallery on Monday and people who came here, they had no idea what was going to happen. And they were so confused when we started to show every print, step-by-step, they were like ‘what’s happening here?’.
“But then they kind of got the idea that it’s funny and charity, and it was good fun.”
