Damon Hill slams ‘ridiculous’ Valtteri Bottas Australian GP grid penalty

Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion, says it is “ridiculous” that Valtteri Bottas must serve a grid penalty upon his return to F1 with Cadillac at the Australian Grand Prix.

It comes after Bottas’s teammate Sergio Perez covered the first miles with Cadillac’s F1 2026 car in a shakedown at Silverstone on Friday.

Damon Hill brands Valtteri Bottas Australian GP penalty ‘ridiculous’

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Having spent last season as reserve driver at Mercedes, Bottas is returning to competition with the new Cadillac team in F1 2026.

The 10-time race winner was left without a seat for 2025 after being dropped by the Sauber team, which opted for an all-new lineup of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the team’s Audi F1 2026 transition.

Bottas will partner Perez, the former Red Bull driver and six-time grand prix winner, at Cadillac this season.

Bottas was handed a five-place grid penalty in his last race for Sauber at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix following a collision with Kevin Magnussen’s Haas.

As revealed by PlanetF1.com, it emerged last year that Bottas is set to serve his penalty upon his Cadillac debut at the 2026 season opener in Australia.

The FIA has tweaked the sporting regulations for F1 2026, ensuring that penalties will be wiped from a driver’s record if the punishment is not served within 12 months of the original offence.

With Bottas’s penalty delivered before the change to the rules was ratified, however, the Finn will be forced to drop five places on the grid in Melbourne.

Hill, who won the world championship with Williams in 1996, has taken to social media to express his dismay over the situation.

Using Instagram’s story function, which allows images and video clips to be posted for a maximum 24-hour period, Hill said of Bottas’s Australian Grand Prix penalty: “How ridiculous.”

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In a statement issued to PlanetF1.com last August, an FIA spokesperson said that no mechanism exists to retrospectively wipe Bottas’s penalty, with the change to the rules for F1 2026 designed to avoid a repeat situation in the future.

The spokesperson said: “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 is intended to avoid similar anomalous situations in the future.”

Bottas is a previous winner of the Australian Grand Prix having kickstarted his 2019 season with victory at Albert Park.

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