Valtteri Bottas, the Finnish driver for Stake F1, has been penalized with a grid penalty for Saturday’s sprint race (11.00 UST), forcing him to start from the back of the grid. The penalty was imposed after he nearly caused a crash by obstructing Oscar Piastri during the sprint qualifying. Bottas was driving dangerously slow on the racing line at the time.
Bottas was audibly upset about the incident and immediately blamed his new race engineer, Steven Petrik, over the team radio. According to Bottas, he was warned too late about the approaching Piastri. This is Bottas’s first race with Petrik in Miami, following an unexpected decision by the team management to replace the previous race engineer. Interestingly, Bottas had no say in this decision, as he admitted on Thursday’s media day in Miami. “It was quite a sudden change,” Bottas said.
The personnel change is part of the transition from Sauber/Stake F1 to Audi, which will continue as a factory team in 2026. Bottas stated, “Some people are leaving, and some are joining. It’s clear that most of these decisions are not in my hands.”
Hamilton Escapes Grid Penalty
Unlike Valtteri Bottas, his former Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, managed to avoid a grid penalty. During the sprint qualifying, some team members were not wearing the mandatory protective clothing in the pit lane. The stewards later discovered that almost all teams had committed the same violation, and therefore, it made little sense to impose penalties. Hamilton, meanwhile, clocked the twelfth fastest time. Max Verstappen secured pole position.
