F1 star linked with 2026 seat facing penalty at next race

A star of the Mercedes F1 team has an FIA penalty to serve at their next race.

Former racer Valtteri Bottas may only act as the Silver Arrows' test and reserve driver for now, but his name is reportedly high on the list to join the Cadillac F1 team in 2026.

Should the American outfit select Bottas to fill one of the two seats on offer for their first campaign in the sport, he will have to start his first race five places back from wherever he qualifies should he make it back into a full-time contract.

The Finn collided heavily with Kevin Magnussen before retiring from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year, but as the event marked his final race for Sauber, the F1 stewards had no choice but to push his penalty down the road to his next race – which, at time of writing, has not happened.

The penalty was handed out to be 'the equivalent of a drive-through penalty' and came tied to three penalty points, which eagle-eyed readers may notice is a more severe penalty than Max Verstappen's ten-second time penalty for ramming George Russell last weekend.

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Cadillac hopeful set for F1 penalty

Bottas has been heavily linked recently with Cadillac as they look to fill both of their vacant seats for their 2026 entry into the sport.

The 35-year-old has also been linked to Alpine thanks to their impending move to Mercedes power units, either to replace Pierre Gasly or Franco Colapinto, whose own future remains uncertain.

While the penalty would be irritating for Bottas' first race with any team that snaps him up, it's not severe enough to be a dealbreaker in anything other than a one-off race scenario, replacing a banned or injured driver.

The FIA's statement on the penalty at the time read: "Car 77 was on the inside of Car 20 on the approach to Turn 6, misjudged his braking significantly and collided with Car 20 which was entering the corner on the regular racing line.

"As Car 77 retired from the race, the Steward determine that a grid drop is warranted which is the equivalent of a drive-through penalty and three penalty points are warranted due to the significant misjudgement of the driver."

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