The 2026 season continues to be greater than a month away.
Valtteri Bottas shall be hampered upon his F1 return with Cadillac (Picture: Getty)
Former System 1 world champion Damon Hill has referred to as out the “ridiculous” state of affairs which has left Valtteri Bottas unable to keep away from serving a penalty upon his return to the grid. After a season on the sidelines, Bottas will race once more in 2026 having joined F1 newcomers Cadillac.
Nonetheless, his possibilities of getting off to a points-scoring begin shall be hampered by a grid penalty that he should serve on the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March. That punishment is carried over from his final F1 race, representing Sauber on the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, through which he collided with Kevin Magnussen – additionally in his farewell race having been changed by Haas.
Bottas additionally needed to retire from the race earlier than he may serve a time penalty, which meant he was as an alternative handed a five-place grid penalty for the following Grand Prix through which he was set to take part. That was the ultimate occasion of the 2024 season and Bottas, having misplaced his Sauber seat, spent 2025 as reserve driver at Mercedes.
The sporting laws have since been modified by the FIA to make it in order that such penalties shall be wiped from a driver’s report after 12 months, even when it went unserved. However that change to the foundations was made after Bottas’ penalty was handed out, and the governing physique has since confirmed that there’s nothing they’ll do.
An FIA spokesperson defined: “Presently, the penalty will stand, as there isn’t a mechanism to retroactively amend the penalty that was utilized below the laws in drive on the time. The change of regulation is meant to keep away from comparable anomalous conditions sooner or later.”
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The favored 36-year-old from Finland is an honorary Australian having been embraced by the locals as one in every of their very own. He spends a lot of his free time Down Beneath and shall be heading south early for an additional look forward of his maiden F1 weekend with Cadillac. Bottas has signed as much as drive on the Adelaide Motorsport Competition on the weekend earlier than the Melbourne occasion.
He’s set to get behind the wheel of a Ferrari 156/85, which was raced within the 1985 F1 season. Bottas will drive the chassis which was raced by Italian Michele Alboreto in that marketing campaign, and can also be due to participate in some fan meet-and-greet actions over the course of the multi-day occasion.
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