Hill calls Bottas’ carry-over grid drop “ridiculous” as Ferrari reshuffles Hamilton’s pit wall and Red Bull needles Mercedes over 2026 “favourites” tag
Valtteri Bottas is finally on the brink of a race return, but he won’t get a clean slate when he does. Damon Hill isn’t impressed.
The 1996 world champion branded “ridiculous” the fact Bottas must serve a five-place grid penalty on his comeback with Cadillac at the Australian Grand Prix, punishment stemming from his final race for Sauber back in 2024. Bottas sat out 2025 in a reserve role at Mercedes, but the sanction survived the sabbatical and will now bite the moment he’s back on a Sunday. It’s the letter of the law, sure, yet you can see Hill’s point: a sporting penalty stretching across teams, years and even a season on the sidelines doesn’t exactly scream fresh start.
There’s a bigger picture here, too. Cadillac’s entry puts a spotlight on newcomers navigating F1’s bureaucracy just as the sport tears into a fresh technical era. A debut weekend is hard enough without an inherited penalty from the old life.
Over in Maranello, an old conversation about Lewis Hamilton’s comfort zone has found new legs. Sky’s Martin Brundle said earlier this year that Hamilton “terribly missed” a trusted voice in his first campaign in red, and those comments resurface as Ferrari moves his 2025 race engineer Riccardo Adami into a new role. The Hamilton–Adami radio dynamic rarely purred last season, and Hamilton finished the year without a podium. Ferrari’s shuffle hints at a team intent on smoothing the edges around its star signing before the 2026 reset lands. The question isn’t whether Hamilton still has the speed—he does—it’s whether Ferrari can give him the same seamless scaffolding he enjoyed for so long at Mercedes.
Speaking of Mercedes, Red Bull Powertrains’ Ben Hodgkinson isn’t buying the paddock chatter that the Silver Arrows are ahead for 2026. In fact, he suggests Mercedes may have lit that particular fuse themselves. It’s classic F1 gamesmanship: underplay your own hand, cast your rival as the benchmark, and hope they open the garage door a little wider. The new ruleset is enormous—50% electrification, fully sustainable fuels, active aero—and there’s enough complexity there to hide a dozen truths. Expect plenty more shade before anyone actually shows their cards.
McLaren, meanwhile, could face the most uncomfortable “nice problem” in 2026. Karun Chandhok expects the rate of development under the new regs to force tougher calls on who gets what, and when. The team made a point of absolute parity between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in 2025, and it’s served them very well, but development wars are rarely symmetric. If the fastest path is bolting one-off upgrades to a single chassis on select weekends, parity meets pragmatism. Norris and Piastri are a rare pairing: fast, razor-sharp and—crucially—cooperative. Keeping both properly armed while chasing a moving target will test the papaya playbook.
And then there’s Max Verstappen, who remains, well, very Max about it all. The three-time champion admitted he hasn’t logged “that many laps” in Red Bull’s simulator for 2026 yet. That’s not complacency so much as a driver who knows what really counts is how quickly you adapt when the real car hits real tarmac. Verstappen will run his familiar number 3 next year, with Isack Hadjar stepping up alongside him. It’s a big promotion for Hadjar and an intriguing test for Red Bull, who are as proud of their pipeline as they are protective of their pecking order.
The common thread running through all of this is the 2026 reset. The power units will change character, the aero will behave differently, and the fastest teams will be the ones who learn the language quickest. That’s why Hill bristles at a legacy grid drop for Bottas; why Ferrari is tinkering with Hamilton’s inner circle; why Red Bull and Mercedes are trading whispers; and why McLaren’s harmony might be tested by the tyranny of time-to-track.
A few quick notes to watch as testing edges closer:
– Cadillac’s operational sharpness from day one, penalty or not. If the basics are drilled, the deficit is manageable. If they’re chasing procedures, the penalty becomes a footnote.
– Ferrari’s pit wall chemistry with Hamilton. A calm radio often precedes a quick car.
– Mercedes vs. Red Bull noise level. The louder the claims, the less we usually know.
– McLaren’s upgrade cadence split. One car first, or both together? The answer might change race by race.
– Hadjar’s learning curve. Sharing a garage with Verstappen is a crash course in F1 at full noise.
We’ve had enough phony war. The next lap of F1’s story is close, and the stakes are about to go up again.
