F1 driver to finally serve FIA penalty 455 days after getting it

It has been confirmed that a star of the F1 grid will have to serve a penalty handed to them by the FIA stewards at their next race.

As F1's governing body, the FIA have the power to make key decisions both during and away from race weekends, but not all drivers get the chance to serve outgoing penalties.

One such star who perhaps thought he had gotten away with his most recent punishment in the sport is Valtteri Bottas, who picked up a five-place grid penalty following a collision with Kevin Magnussen at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

At the time, the Finn may not have been concerned about the FIA's verdict given that the season finale marked his final race in the championship for the foreseeable future.

Ahead of the 2025 season, Sauber F1 team opted to drop Bottas and team-mate Zhou Guanyu in favour of a brand new driver line-up in Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.

Sauber will become Audi in 2026 and the brand felt a fresh driver duo would help the German automotive giants to hit the ground running next season, but it has now been announced that Bottas will also be making a return to the grid next year, meaning he in fact will have to serve his penalty.

Bottas already handed setback for F1 return

Ahead of this weekend's Dutch GP, the team set to become the 11th outfit on the grid finally confirmed the sport's worst kept secret- Bottas and Perez are officially their first F1 driver duo.

As rumours continued to spiral ahead of the official announcement however, it became unclear whether Bottas would have to serve his outstanding FIA penalty should he return to the championship.

During his final race before taking a year away from being a full-time driver, the 36-year-old was awarded, "a drop of five grid positions for the next race in which the driver participates".

It all seemed pretty straightforward, however a revised section of the regulations raised confusion after it went on to read: "at the driver’s next Sprint or Race in which the driver participates in the subsequent twelve (12) month period."

But despite Bottas' year out as a Mercedes test and reserve driver, an FIA spokesperson has now confirmed: "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."

"The change of regulation [for 2026] is intended to avoid similar anomalous situations in future."

As a result, Bottas' first race with Cadillac at the 2026 Australian GP will see him serve a five-place grid penalty.

Having picked up the penalty on December 8th 2024, and his first race back with Cadillac being the Australian Grand Prix on March 8th 2026 – there will be a whopping 455 days between his penalty being issued and it being served.

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