Valtteri Bottas notes of raising more than $150k funds from his Movember charity after he launched a calendar showcasing his butts.
With the completion of November, Sauber’s Bottas released initial details regarding the amount he generated for his Movember charity. Apart from the usual mustache way, the Finn went a step further this year with a launch of his own calendar.
It was not any calendar but a nude photoshoot of him at various places showcasing his butt mostly. This moment went viral in the last few years when he first tried as fun few years back. Since then, he has done so on a couple of occasions before taking a serious route.
The calendar was launched ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP and it has been a success with over $150k raised as per Bottas. “The last day of Movember, thank you so much for all the support in November,” he wrote on his social media. “With the donations and with the calendars we have together raised a substantial amount for Movember – meaning WE have really helped and will effect and save many people’s lives.
“Final figures to be calculated in the next days, but we are talking around $150k of funds raised.” Reflecting on the move, Bottas explained how this came about with his photographer friend Paul Ripke, who was part of the Mercedes F1 team.
It came about after seeing the popularity of his last random shot which they then thought to do a full calendar for charity. His family were surprised to see it as well, but when Bottas explained the idea behind it, they were fine with the move.
“Last year, when I launched that one photo in Aspen, it was quite popular,” Bottas started. “And we actually did raise quite a bit of funds. Because I do quite a bit of stuff with Ripke, he’s a good friend, the photographer, and then we started to joke about the idea, ‘Imagine, if there’s the full calendar.’
“And then closer to November, Movember month, we started to think actually, that’s something we could do, something really, really good. And we decided that yeah, let’s do it, but for charity. It’s mainly for prostate cancer research, so I think it’s for a good cause. Movember is focusing on that quite a lot.
“I know some people who have had close people to them who had issues with that kind of thing. And I think with men, as well, like Movember, focusing on men’s health, many people do get quite afraid of speaking about those kinds of things. And I went like all out, showing myself, trying to be an example. As a human body, you don’t need to be shy.”
Adding on his family’s reaction, Bottas stated: “I did get a message from my mum. Like, ‘What is this?’ She doesn’t really understand English either that well, and she saw some of the videos that I posted, and she was quite confused and protective. Like, ‘Are you sure that’s the path you want to go?’
“So then I explained the charity thing, and so it’s fine. I’ve had questions, people asking like, why did you do that? Like why do you want to show your ass? But then when I explained the charity aspect and people kind of get it. And we had so much fun, you can imagine, making that, taking those pictures.
“We had this art gallery on Monday [in Las Vegas] and people who came there, 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, okay, it’s funny and for charity. It was good fun.”
Here’s the launch of calendar: https://x.com/ValtteriBottas/status/1728979769554047487?s=20
Here’s more details on calendar and photos: https://ripkytchen.com/products/kalender-bottass
Here’s BTS of the shoot: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0PLeQAtg0C/?hl=en
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