Valtteri Bottas’ famed nude calendars will take a sabbatical following his return to Mercedes, but Toto Wolff will allow him to keep his mullet for F1 2025.

The Finn has very much come out of his shell over the last couple of years, leading to some unusual social media posts and life choices.

Toto Wolff hints Valtteri Bottas’ nude calendar sidelined

Bottas is returning to Mercedes as a reserve driver for the F1 2025 season, having left the Brackley-based squad after the 2021 campaign to take on a new challenge with the then-Alfa Romeo team.

Leaving Sauber after three seasons with the Swiss team, Bottas was left with few options on the F1 2025 grid and found refuge with his former team as he seeks a route back to a race seat.

Bottas previously drove for Mercedes between 2017 and ’21, scoring multiple grand prix wins en route to the runner-up spot in 2019 and ’20.

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Alongside the changes in his professional life, Bottas divorced his wife Emilia Pikkarainen in 2019 and began dating his now long-term partner Tiffany Cromwell in 2020.

Cromwell, a professional cyclist from Australia, has been at his side over the past few years, during which Bottas began to show a very different personality from the one he had while at Mercedes.

With a flair for quirky humour, Bottas has leaned into his role as an ‘honorary Australian’ by growing out a moustache and mullet, bleaching his hair, and releasing amusing videos on his social media channels.

On top of this, Bottas has also got into showing off his bum, with the Finn baring it to the world during an episode of Netflix’s hit Drive to Survive as well as sharing a picture on Instagram of himself swimming naked in a river.

But there was more to come as Bottas released a nude calendar of 13 images last year. Titled ‘Botass 2024’, the Finn donated money from its sale to Prostate Cancer Research.

Alongside this, Botass also introduced a moustache sticker to his helmet in show of his support for the Movember movement, which highlights awareness of prostate and testicular cancer.

With Mercedes hiring Bottas for 2025, the Finn will have to rein in some aspects of his extroverted nature, team boss Wolff confirmed, but he’ll be encouraged to remain authentic to himself.

Speaking to media this week, Wolff told RN365, “We are Mercedes, so maybe the nude calendar is not on anymore.

“So we’ve said that, but we need to keep him authentic.”

To that end, Mercedes – perhaps a more image-conscious outfit than the Sauber team Bottas just left – won’t have a problem with him keeping his mullet.

“If he wants to keep the ugly mullet, then he should,” Wolff smiled.

With the experienced Bottas returning to the fold at Mercedes, a team that holds the Finn in very high regard following years of faithful and solid service, he will be the first port of call should George Russell or Andrea Kimi Antonelli be unable to race at any given weekend.

Alongside that, Bottas will be expected to help Antonelli find his feet in Formula 1 as the young Italian makes his debut in the sport.

“Part of the role of Valtteri will be to have a look on Kimi,” the 53-year-old explained.

“Be there to coach, be there to have an eye on what’s happening on the track. And Kimi is going to learn from Valtteri and from George.”

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