Bottas’ absurd situation: he will start 2026 with a 5-place grid penalty

Uphill start We are only in mid-January, the start of the first GP of the 2026 World Championship is still just under two months away, but we may have already found one of the most absurd stories of the year. The unfortunate protagonist is Valtteri Bottas, who returns to racing as a starter in Formula 1 this year after spending the 2025 season on the ‘bench’ as ​​Mercedes’ reserve driver. But the Finn’s first race with the Cadillac team, a team making its debut in F1, will start uphill. In fact, Bottas – incredibly – will have to pay a 5-place starting grid penalty in Melbourne, in the first GP of the new season. The facts of Abu Dhabi 2024 How is this possible? To find out, you have to go back in time to 8 December 2024, the day of the Abu Dhabi GP, the last race of that Formula 1 season. Bottas, who was in his last race with Sauber, first received a 10-second penalty for a contact with Sergio Perez (who, ironically, will be his teammate in the Cadillac this year) and then a further sanction for causing an accident with the then Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. Following the second collision the Finn was forced to retire and therefore his penalty – as usual – was quantified as 5 positions set back on the starting grid of the next GP in which Bottas would take part. At that moment, however, his career in the Circus as the starting driver of the #77 seemed over and no one paid particular attention to this decision. The rule changes, but not for Bottas. Now that Bottas has returned to racing in F1, however, this penalty is back in force. So at the start of the 2026 Australian GP, ​​although 15 months will have passed since the infringement committed by the 36-year-old from Nastola, Bottas will have to serve this punishment and start five positions further back than his qualifying result. But in addition to the damage, there is also an insult: the FIA ​​has in fact modified the sporting regulations of F1 2026, guaranteeing that penalties will be canceled from a driver’s ‘record’ if the sanction is not served within 12 months of the original violation. It’s a shame that since the penalty inflicted on Bottas was prior to this change, it cannot be included in this category. Not exactly the beginning of the adventure in the Circus that Cadillac dreamed of.