Former financial backer slams Valtteri Bottas

Jan.24 (GMM) Valtteri Bottas’ former financial backer has hit out at the Finnish driver’s behaviour.

Finnish billionaire Antti Aarnio-Wihuri, the 84-year-old head of the Wihuri Group conglomerate, backed not only Bottas’ junior career, but also provided personal sponsorship during the Finn’s stints at Williams and Mercedes.

Wihuri ended its association with Bottas, 35, after 2018.

“We stopped supporting Bottas when his personal income exceeded one million euros,” he explained to Urheilulehti newspaper. “We thought it didn’t make sense for us to support a guy whose income was at that level.”

Aarnio-Wihuri, however, says he doesn’t appreciate the fact that after the funding was cut off, Bottas severed all communication both professionally and personally.

“It’s not a difficult thing for me,” he said. “But I do wonder about a person whose entire career depended on us and then he just stops all contact.

“We even arranged for him to join Mercedes. He would never have gotten there without us.”

When asked why he thinks Bottas behaved in that way, he answered: “I can’t say. Probably because of his character.

“He hasn’t said a word to me since then. We’ve seen each other here and there in the world, but not a word.”

Aarnio-Wihuri added that Bottas’ behaviour was very different when the funding was flowing. The driver, currently holidaying in Australia, could not be reached for comment, but his representative Ville Ahtiainen said there are always two sides to a story.

As for Aarnio-Wihuri, he suspects that despite Bottas returning to Mercedes this year as reserve driver, his Formula 1 career is now basically over.

“My understanding is that his career is over, or practically so,” he said. “And he’s getting to that age, too.”

Bottas lost his Sauber race seat at the end of the 2024 season, and Aarnio-Wihuri said the Finn was number 2 to Lewis Hamilton throughout his days at Mercedes.

“I know the Mercedes team quite well,” he said, “and Bottas was basically the second driver. But the team still gave him a lot of free rein.

“You could say that he was given the opportunity to succeed. But he was the second driver, which in the results was also quite clear. We even discussed it with (Toto) Wolff. That’s why I dare to say now the way it was.”