The army was a positive experience for the F1 star.
Valtteri Bottas has only good memories of his time in the army. ELLE LAITILA
Finland’s only F1 driver Valtteri Bottas and his girlfriend Tiffany Cromwell met the sports media in Lahti on Tuesday at the press conference of the Fnld Grvl cycling event.
The event will be held in the Lahti region on June 10.
Iltalehti talked with Nastola’s husband about a current issue, the military service of top athletes. The issue has been in the headlines since Utah Jazz superstar Lauri Markkanen started his military service last week.
Bottas attended int’s Hennala Sports School in Lahti in 2008–09.
– I think the army is a positive experience for every young man. It makes a boy a man.
– I learned a lot of good things there. If you forget military matters, there you learned to work in a group and take others into account. Intti probably made me more independent too, the F1 star recalls.
Didn’t stop the career
The F1 star always gathers media around him. On Tuesday, Valtteri Bottas and Tiffany Cromwell talked to the media about the Fnld Grvl cycling event to be organized in Lahti on June 10. TIMO KUNNARI
– Inti didn’t hinder my sports career at all. The program could be customized quite well. I got to train and compete. The Hennala Sports School is my personal experience.
Do you encourage young athletes to join the army?
– I encourage you. I have nothing negative about it. It depends on the timing, of course. It’s always better to go there early, 33-year-old Bottas says.
There were many other athletes in the same garrison as the Formula star, such as Huuhkajie goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky.
Bottas hit the table in Hennala with a really hard result in Cooper’s test.
– 3,550 meters was the result. In the beginning, it was supposed to take 3,250 meters, but later that, Bottas tells Iltalehte.
Lauri Markkanen also broke the 3,000 meter mark in Cooper’s test.