Valtteri Bottas in talks to buy his own racing circuit in Finland
Alfa Romeo F1 driver Valtteri Bottas is in the fray to buy the Kymi Ring, a track in southern Finland. The track opened in 2019 and is hopeful of holding a MotoGP championship race in the future.
Interestingly, the circuit holds a Grade- 1 FIA license, which means it can theoretically conduct F1 races as well. However, it didn't get the opportunity to hold races in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions and in 2022 due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Speaking to the Finnish media IS, Bottas said:
"I have discussed with potential buyer candidates about investing in the Kymi Ring. It is, therefore, possible that I would join. However, I now first need further clarification on where exactly we are going.
"I think it is still possible to make Kymi Ring a working concept. Hopefully, in any case, a solution will be found soon. It would be a shame if someone didn't run the track."
"It really was triggered by passion from both of us"- Valtteri Bottas
The Finn and his girlfriend, Tifanny Cromwell, recently launched their gin brand called OATH. When asked by Autosport about his motivations for things outside the track, Valtteri Bottas said:
"It really was triggered by passion from both of us. Before we met, we both always liked gin. And since we started to live together and travel together, we've been collecting gin. We're pretty fortunate that we travel to different countries and get to try different products.
"So, eventually, it just came to a point that we wanted to do our own. We just decided one day let's do it because it's a common interest. So then we started working on it. And it was a bit less than two years later that we launched the product, which was last year."
Bottas added:
"We teamed up with a couple of people from Blue Coast Brewery, a beer from Nice. They were part of starting that company quite a long time ago, and then they exited. And they were also looking for something to do.
"We started to look at all the options. One was to try and distill the gin in Monaco because that is where we live. But we then opted for Finland, because we got to know these people from the distillery that we use."
Valtteri Bottas has been actively involved in ventures outside the track since his exit from Mercedes, which means he could soon shift his focus from racing soon.