It will not be the most smooth sailing return to the Formula 1 grid for Valtteri Bottas.
In his debut for Cadillac in Melbourne, Bottas will be made to serve a five-place grid penalty slapped on him nearly a-year-and-a-half ago.
Driving for Sauber in Abu Dhabi during his final race of F1, Bottas had a collision with Kevin Magnussen and the stewards deemed the Finnish driver at fault, handing him the grid-drop penalty in 2024.
READ MORE LINKS
The stewards handed a five-place grid penalty to Valtteri Bottas. Â FIA
With his departure from the sport that weekend, the penalty fell into the ether of unserved driver penalties, but now it’s come back to haunt him.
As Bottas re-joins the grid in Albert Park with debutants Cadillac, the FIA confirmed that the 36-year-old will need to serve the penalty in his first race back.
“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 confirmed.
Valtteri Bottas departed the sport in 2024. Â LAT Images
“The change of regulation is intended to avoid similar anomalous situations in the future.”
The regulations they refer to is a line in the new regulations for 2026, that says that penalties will ‘expire’ after 12 months.
“A drop of any number of grid positions at the driver’s next Sprint or Race in which the driver participates in the subsequent twelve month period.”
This means that, from 2026, any driver who earns a penalty such as Bottas’ would have it wiped after 12 months have elapsed.
But, no such luck for the honorary Aussie as Bottas took the penalty in 2024 meaning the five-place grid slide still stands, with no expiration date.
Who else has an unserved penalty?
Right now, two drivers have unserved penalties, Jenson Button and Robert Shwartzman.
The Ferrari junior Shwartzman was handed a five-place grid penalty by the Mexican Grand Prix stewards for overtaking under yellow flags during an FP1 session.
In 2017, Button replaced Fernando Alonso at the Monaco Grand Prix.
In 2017, Jenson Button stood in for Fernando Alonso in Monaco. Â LAT Images
During the grand prix on Sunday, he was slapped with a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Pascal Wehrlein.
Both drivers are unlikely to ever be present on the F1 grid again to serve their penalties.
Button has retired from driving altogether and is now a Sky Sports pundit and Shwartzman is an IndyCar driver with Prema Racing stateside.