Bottas' former sponsor spent €20m on him

      In our time, talking about certain stages of the career of Valtteri Bottas, we have repeatedly mentioned the Finnish billionaire Antti Aarnio-Wihuri, co-owner and chairman of the board of Wihuri Corporation, who was his main sponsor.

      In particular, it was thanks to the financial support of this man Bottas in 2016 became a Mercedes driver, although Toto Wolff then more inclined to the candidacy of Pascal Wehrlein. In a recent interview with the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat Aarnio-Vihuri named the amount in which he cost him sponsorship: 20 million euros. However, the current behavior of his former protégé surprises the Finnish entrepreneur, who is already over 80. "Bottas was performing quite well and was the best in all the youth championships in which he competed," recalls Aarnio-Vihuri. - But in 2019 we stopped supporting him when his personal earnings exceeded a million euros. We thought there was no point in supporting a guy who earns so much. But this man, whose career was completely dependent on us, surprises me: he cut off all contact with us. Not that I'm worried about it, but it was us who arranged his transition from Williams to Mercedes. Without us he would never have been in this team. I do not know why he stopped contact with us, probably it is due to his character. Since then, he has never even said hello to me, although we have met many times in different countries of the world. During the years of cooperation, we have not had any disagreements, but why continue to support him when he has already started making millions? When we stopped doing that, we started spending that money on supporting other riders, which is perfectly normal. Especially in all our contracts with riders it is stipulated that support stops when their income reaches a certain level. And Bottas had to understand that at some point he will no longer need the support of our company". To get comments from Valtteri himself journalists Ilta-Sanomat could not, but his official representative, Ville Ahtiainen, in the context of the interview with the former sponsor Bottas said that such stories always have two sides, but added that the racer is grateful to all who have ever supported him.

      Wihuri is currently sponsoring 18-year-old Tuukki Taponen, a Ferrari Racing Academy attendee who will make his Formula 3 debut in 2025.