[Saba Sports News] 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill recently criticized Valtteri Bottas’s penalty of a five-place grid drop for the 2026 Australian Grand Prix, calling this decision utterly absurd. The Finnish driver is set to make his return to F1 representing the Cadillac team in Melbourne but must carry a penalty stemming from two years ago. During the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, while driving for the Alfa Romeo F1 team, Bottas collided with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. After the race, Bottas was penalized with a five-place grid drop for the next race. However, with Bottas losing his official driver position in the 2025 season and transitioning to a reserve driver for Mercedes, this penalty was never enforced.
It wasn’t until Bottas joined the Cadillac team for the 2026 season that it was confirmed he needed to serve this penalty during the season opener at the Australian Grand Prix. The issue is that the FIA had revised the racing rules for the 2026 season regarding similar situations. The new regulation clearly states that if a penalty is not enforced within 12 months, it will automatically become void, preventing drivers from carrying old penalties when switching teams or moving between seasons. However, since Bottas’s penalty occurred before the new rules formally took effect, it does not apply to him, and he must continue to serve the penalty. This time lag has sparked dissatisfaction among the public.