F1 world champion Damon Hill has called out one of Formula 1’s more absurd quirks — one that might ruin Valtteri Bottas’ long-awaited return to the grid in Melbourne next March.
Hill branded the FIA’s insistence on enforcing a nearly 15-month-old grid penalty as “ridiculous,” and honestly, he’s not wrong.
Bottas, 36, is making his full-time return with Cadillac, the shiny new American team bringing F1 back to 11 squads for the first time in a decade.
It’s a feel-good story: a seasoned veteran, a fresh start, and a brand-new project. However, the Finn is being punished for a clash with Kevin Magnussen at the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP – an incident so long ago that most fans had already forgotten it.
Thanks to a rule change, penalties shouldn’t normally linger if a driver hasn’t raced in 12 months. But Bottas’ sanction predates the update, meaning it still counts.
Melbourne’s lights will go out with Bottas starting five places back, regardless of where he qualifies, all because of a collision from a bygone season – and with a team that didn’t even exist at the time.
FIA: Bureaucracy Over Common Sense
The FIA has defended the decision: "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,” a spokesperson for the FIA said last year.
"The change of regulation is intended to avoid similar anomalous situations in future."
©Cadillac
Hill’s blunt social media response cuts through the legalese: “How ridiculous!”
So while F1 likes to brag about fairness and innovation, it’s about to kick off its 2026 season by proving it can still be hilariously, stubbornly archaic.
Bottas’ Cadillac debut may be exciting – but it’s also a cautionary tale of what happens when a sport’s rulebook develops a memory longer than its logic.
Read also: Cadillac unleashes its first F1 car with Silverstone shakedown
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