The newly reported Cadillac F1 driver, Valtteri Bottas, is set to serve a grid penalty during his first race back.
While Bottas has not been officially confirmed as a Cadillac driver, several reports have claimed that he will be announced soon.
Bottas is expected to join Sergio Perez, giving the team an experienced pairing.
In his last race with Sauber last season, Bottas collided with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The FIA awarded Bottas a five-place grid penalty for the next race that he takes part in.
Sauber moved on from Bottas and then-teammate Zhou Ghanyu, leaving him on the sidelines for the current season.
He landed on his feet with a reserve driver seat at Mercedes, though he has been relegated to sponsorship activities and testing rather than taking part in a Grand Prix.
Unless George Russell or Kimi Antonelli suffers an injury, he will not race this season, leading to the penalty carrying over.
“[Bottas] was on the inside of [Magnussen] on the approach to Turn 6, misjudged his braking significantly and collided with [Magnussen], who was entering the corner on the regular racing line,” the FIA stewards said regarding the incident between Bottas and Magnussen.
“As [Bottas] retired from the race, the Stewards determined that a grid drop is warranted, which is the equivalent of a drive-through penalty, and three penalty points are warranted due to the significant misjudgement of the driver.”
The updated FIA rulebook states that penalties must be served “at the driver’s next Sprint or Race in which the driver participates in the subsequent twelve (12) month period.”
This rule, however, was not put into place when it was handed out, leading to confusion about whether or not Bottas still needs to serve it.
The Race reached out to the FIA regarding Bottas’ penalty.
“Currently, the penalty will stand, as there is no mechanism to retroactively amend the penalty that was applied under the regulations in force at the time,” an FIA spokesperson told The Race.
“The change of regulation [for 2026] is intended to avoid similar anomalous situations in future.”
“While the FIA’s regulatory adjustment is designed to prevent long-delayed penalties from lingering in the future, Bottas’ case stands as a rare example of how the timing of rule changes can leave a driver caught between two eras of Formula 1 governance.”
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