Robert Shwartzman handed F1 grid penalty he may never serve

Robert Shwartzman has been handed a five-place grid penalty even though he’s not due to race at this weekend’s F1 Mexico City Grand Prix.

Shwartzman was in action for Sauber during FP1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in place of Zhou Guanyu.

As per F1’s regulations, all drivers must give up one FP1 session for a rookie driver.

Shwartzman was one of five ‘rookies’ in action during first practice.

The Ferrari-backed driver has been handed a penalty after overtaking Yuki Tsunoda under double-waved yellow flags.

The incident occurred following Alex Albon’s shunt with Oliver Bearman.

With double-waved yellow flags on show, Shwartzman passed Tsunoda on-track.

The stewards noted: “Following the incident at [turn nine], Shwartzman passed a single waved yellow, and a double yellow flag before overtaking Tsunoda in the yellow zone while travelling at speed.

“The penalty is the usual penalty for passing under a double yellow, and while the stewards recognise that the driver is not scheduled to start the race, they have applied the consistent penalty.”

Shwartzman’s penalty is unusual given he’s likely to never serve it.

The 25-year-old currently races in the World Endurance Championship and missed out on an F1 opportunity after several strong years in FIA Formula 2.

This scenario has happened before though as Jenson Button picked up a grid penalty for an incident in Monaco when he was a stand-in for Fernando Alonso.

Button has never served that penalty as it was his final race in F1 - a one-off appearance.