Valtteri Bottas claims that his grid penalty has "vanished" ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, as he returns to the grid following a year-long absence. The experienced Finn spent last season as a reserve driver for Mercedes after leaving Sauber, now rebranded as Audi, at the end of 2024. He is now back on the grid full-time, having been snapped up by Cadillac for their inaugural season alongside Sergio Perez.

Bottas will be hoping for a strong weekend in Melbourne despite Cadillac being tipped to run among the backmarkers in the early part of the campaign. However, his hopes of a points-paying finish were thought to have been dashed by the powers that be. He was handed a five-place grid penalty because of an incident in his final race for Sauber in 2024, that was set to be served in Melbourne.

At that year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the 36-year-old was involved in a collision with Perez on the opening lap. He tagged his new team-mate into a spin, earning himself a 10-second time penalty.

Later in the race, Bottas locked up his front wheels and drove straight into the back of Kevin Magnussen, who was taking part in his final Grand Prix before leaving Haas.

The latter collision forced Bottas to retire from the race, with his car too damaged to continue. Because he was unable to serve the drive-through penalty he acquired for ramming Magnussen, many expected it to be converted into a grid drop for his next race.

There were no opportunities for Bottas to serve that penalty last season because he wasn't on the grid, moving that next race date to this weekend in Australia.

"Apparently it's vanished thanks to some new regulation," Bottas said. "So no grid penalty. It is good."

A rule change from the FIA states that grid penalties would be served "at the driver's next Sprint or Race in which the driver participates in the subsequent 12-month period".

In spite of the challenges he may face as Cadillac navigate their first season in F1, he is looking forward to the new campaign and believes the sky is the limit.

Speaking to Express Sport in an interview published last month, Bottas said: "It's quite a rare opportunity in anyone's career to be in a team that joins F1 as a new team.

"I've now properly seen how the team actually operates in all areas. I have much more capacity to just look around, instead of just looking at the data and driving the car.

"It's been interesting. I think I've learned a lot about how the team is actually being run. My scope is much wider, I would say 95 per cent wider than what I used to have.

"I think that's going to help me. It has made me a more complete driver as well, having that kind of knowledge."

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