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Sebastian Vettel was given a 10 place grid penalty following the season opening race in Australia for colliding with Robert Kubica. What would happen if a similar penalty was handed out to a driver who was subsequently sacked by his team prior to the next race? Is that penalty to the driver or the car no matter who the driver is? Jacques Villeneuve was penalized 10 grid positions at the 2006 Spanish Grand Prix because his car's engine was damaged during transport to Barcelona, this penalty would have been assessed no matter who the driver was, had a change been made between the European Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix.

I believe if the penalty is due to driver error then it won't apply on another driver but if it is due to a team or techinical issue then the replacement driver would still be penalised.

From memory, I think a team did replace their driver the following race due to a penalty but let me check on that to confirm.

Keep in mind that the type of penalties and the way they are handed keeps changing as teams will always try to exploit loopholes into the rules and the regulators try to close them.

Yes this is a bit of a bump but for further reference the driver in reference was Felipe Massa in 2002 and he was replaced by Frentzen for the Indianapolis race I believe