F1 News
Billionaire claims 'helping Bottas to Mercedes' and 'getting ignored' after
Valtteri Bottas, after having spent three season at Sauber (previously called Alfa Romeo), has not managed to find a permanent full-time seat in F1 for the 2025 season. A Finnish billionaire, who previously supported the driver, Antti Aarnio-Wihuri, claims he is surprised how he was 'previously ignored by him' after his team stopped financially backing Bottas during his first Mercedes contract.
Valtteri Bottas will begin the 2025 season as Mercedes' third driver. The Finn was rumoured to be a candidate to remain at season for the upcoming year, but the team eventually opted for Gabriel Bortoleto. The driver will now return to his previous team in the competition, Mercedes, where he was Lewis Hamilton's teammate from 2017 until 2021. He will be the German's third driver, behind full-time competitors George Russell and youngster Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
'We got him to Mercedes'
According to billionaire, Aarnio-Wihuri, who previously helped the driver financially with the Wahuri Group, is now suprised by how the driver ignores him, he explained to the Finnish magazine Urheilulehti. The billionaire explained that once Bottas' income reached a €1 million, they stopped supporting him.
"It’s not a problem for me. But I do wonder about someone whose whole career depended on us – he stopped all contact. After all, we got him to Mercedes, he would never have got there without us," he began. "I don’t know [why]. Probably his character. He hasn’t said a word a day when he’s come up to me," he continued, even as the two have been at the same place several times.
"In the world we’ve seen each other a lot, but we haven’t [greeted] each other. My understanding is that his career is over – in practice. And he’s getting on in years," the billionaire concluded, as now Bottas returned to Mercedes. On the other hand, one of Bottas' representatives reportedly responded with saying: "There are always two sides to the story."
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