After spending an entire season on the sidelines, quite literally watching his colleagues fight for victories, podiums and points in Formula 1, Valtteri Bottas is now ready to make his return to racing as a full-time driver in the world championship Circus.
As has been known for some time, the Finnish driver has left Mercedes, where he also played an important role in supporting Andrea Kimi Antonelli during his rookie season, to join Cadillac as a race driver. Alongside Valtteri Bottas, the American team has also signed another familiar name returning to the grid: Sergio Perez.
Valtteri Bottas will make his first appearance behind the wheel of the new American car during the closed-door tests scheduled for the second half of January, while his official return to racing will take place at the Australian Grand Prix. However, the road ahead will not be an easy one for Valtteri.
In addition to representing a brand-new team that will likely need some time to adapt to the demands and complexity of Formula 1, the Finnish driver will also have to serve a grid penalty at Melbourne.
During the most recent Grand Prix he competed in, the Abu Dhabi race that brought the 2024 season to a close, Bottas was involved in an incident that the stewards deemed irregular. As a result, he was handed a five-place grid penalty to be served at the first Grand Prix in which he would take part.
More than a year after that sanction was imposed, it will finally be applied in Australia, where the former Mercedes driver will have to drop five positions on the starting grid. The decision, signed at the time by Felix Holter, Loic Bacquelaine, Derek Warwick and Mohammed Al Hashmi at 18:42 on 8 September 2024, shows that Valtteri Bottas breached Appendix L, Chapter IV, Article 2 d) of the FIA International Sporting Code.
While battling with the then Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas ended up hitting the Danish driver’s car at Turn 6, following a misjudgement under braking. The contact was judged to be his responsibility by the race officials.
As a consequence of the incident, in addition to the five-place grid penalty that he will now serve in Australia, Valtteri Bottas was also given three penalty points on his licence, valid for the following 12 months. Those points have since been wiped clean, as the 12-month period has now passed, meaning that Valtteri will at least be able to start the season without any penalty points hanging over him.
As Bottas prepares to swap his Mercedes gear for the new Cadillac colors, this lingering penalty serves as a stark reminder of the unfinished business he left behind in 2024. While a five-place drop is far from the ideal start for a new manufacturer looking to make a statement, the Finn’s veteran experience will be vital in navigating through the field in Melbourne. For Cadillac, the focus will remain on long-term growth, and despite the early setback, having a driver of Bottas’ caliber back on the grid is a significant win for the American project as they embark on their inaugural F1 journey.
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