Valtteri Bottas will avoid starting his Formula 1 comeback at Cadillac with a grid penalty incurred over a year ago thanks to a tweak to F1’s regulations.
Bottas, who did not race in 2025, had looked set to be hit with a five-place grid drop for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix before even completing a competitive lap.
Ironically, Bottas had been given the penalty in his last race for Sauber for a collision with then-Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December 2024.
Pérez is Bottas’ new teammate at the start-up Cadillac team, which debuts in Melbourne on Sunday, and the collision was also the last race for the Mexican driver before he too sat out the 2025 season.
Under the previous rules, Bottas was due to serve it in the next race he took place in.
Valtteri Bottas will not serve a grid penalty this weekend. Kym Illman/Getty Images
However, this has been rendered null and void by an update to Article B2.5.4 of F1’s sporting regulations, which states that “unserved grid penalties for the Race imposed in the previous twelve (12) months” will be scrubbed off.
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Cadillac joined Formula 1 this season as the 11th team on the grid and will race with a Ferrari engine deal.
Bottas and Pérez have both been handed the opportunity to return with the American team.
The American outfit looks set to be in a fight with the struggling Aston Martin team to not be last on the grid.
