Naked Bottas calendar raises $150,000 for charity despite his mum’s concerns

The calendar resulted from the interest in prints Bottas sold last year and was put together by photographer Paul Ripke.

An initial run of 10,000 was quickly sold out via www.bottass.com, so more were printed.

Bottas has also admitted that his mother was initially confused by his decision to strip until she was assured that the aim was to raise funds for charity, specifically prostate cancer research.

Bottas took to social media on Thursday to reveal how successful the project had been.

"Thank you so much for all the support in November," he wrote. "With the donations and with the calendars we have together raised a substantial amount for Movember - meaning WE have really helped and will affect and save many people's lives.

"Final figures to be calculated in the next days, but we are talking around $150k of funds raised!"

Explaining how the calendar project came about, he added: "Last year, when I launched that one photo in Aspen, it was quite popular.

Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo F1 Team

"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."

Expanding on that choice, he said: "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."

Asked about the reaction of friends and family the Finn conceded that he'd had to convince his mother that it was a worthwhile exercise.

"Well, I did get a message from my mum," he said. "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."