Last weekend Valtteri Bottas had a choice of what to do with his free time – let’s start with the fact that the famous Rallye Monte-Carlo took place in the area where he lives. The Finnish driver never concealed his interest in this type of motorsport, was at the start of the rally more than once and even achieved good results.
But now he preferred competitions of a different kind, for which he went to the Austrian Alps to the city of Zell am See, where ice races were held on the territory of the local airport.
We’ve already talked about the GP Ice Race; its history goes back almost a hundred years and once involved the legendary German engineer Fedinand Porsche. In 2024, this celebration of winter sports was held under the brand name FAT International – 30 years ago this company sponsored the Le Mans Porsche Team, and the crew of Yannick Dalmas, Hurley Haywood and Mauro Baldi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche sports prototype 962.
In honor of the 1994 triumph, ice competitions were again held under the company’s banner and with the traditional support of Red Bull. It brought together about a hundred participants from 14 countries, both professional racers and ice drifting enthusiasts.
One of the guests at the race was Valtteri Bottas, who not only watched what was happening on the track from the sidelines, but also raced past it in a Porsche sports car. He was not the only guest who is related to Formula 1; you could also encounter Mark Webber in the FAT Ice Race paddock. The former Red Bull Racing driver has been working with Porsche for a long time and is one of the ambassadors of the Stuttgart brand.
By the way, interest in this race was so great that the organizers had to release an additional number of tickets for sale, since what was originally planned sold out almost immediately. And it all ended with a noisy party at Kaprun Castle, where not everyone was allowed to enter, where delicious dishes of Austrian cuisine were served and the audience was entertained by popular local DJs. He did not say whether Valtteri attended that party.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
