Australian Grand Prix: Reasons Valtteri Bottas will not face 15-month-old sanction

Valtteri Bottas will not face a grid penalty from over a year ago as he embarks on his Formula 1 return with Cadillac, due to a modification in F1’s regulations.

Bottas, who did not participate in the 2025 season, was initially set to receive a five-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix before he had even completed a competitive lap.

Interestingly, the penalty was assigned during his final race with Sauber for a collision with then-Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December 2024.

Pérez is now Bottas’ teammate at the newly established Cadillac team, which will make its debut in Melbourne on Sunday, and the incident also marked the last race for Pérez before he too missed the 2025 season.

According to the former regulations, Bottas was expected to serve the penalty in his next race.

However, this has been nullified by a revision to Article B2.5.4 of F1’s sporting regulations, which specifies that “unserved grid penalties for the Race imposed in the previous twelve (12) months” will be eliminated.

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Cadillac entered Formula 1 this season as the 11th team on the grid and will compete with a Ferrari engine partnership.

Bottas and Pérez have both been given the chance to return with the American team.

The American squad appears poised to contend with the struggling Aston Martin team to avoid finishing last on the grid.

Source: espn.com