George Russell will serve F1 engine penalty but Mercedes unsure where
Mercedes reveals George Russell will take a grid penalty before the end of the 2026 F1 season.
Mercedes has confirmed that George Russell will have to serve a Formula 1 grid penalty this season, but the team is yet to decide where to take the new engine.
Reliability woes over the first half of the 2026 season left Mercedes facing the prospect of both Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli exceeding their allowance of four power units for the campaign.
Mercedes had already decided that Antonelli will start from the back of the grid for his home Italian Grand Prix in order to take a new engine, and the German manufacturer has now revealed Russell will also need a fifth power unit before the end of the year.
Russell suffered a power unit failure at the Canadian Grand Prix as well as a problem during qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, while Antonelli retired in Barcelona with engine trouble.
"We have not finalised where George will take his penalty, but both drivers will be affected," Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord said on the team’s Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show.
"George retired in Canada, Kimi retired in Barcelona, and George also stopped at the end of qualifying in Hungary. Had that happened in the race, the impact could have been much greater.
"We must manage the remaining events so that both cars reach the end of the season with the freshest and best-performing hardware possible. It is a constant trade-off between the risk of running high-mileage components and the points cost of taking a grid penalty and recovering through the field.”
Russell trails Mercedes team-mate and direct title rival Antonelli by 59 points in the drivers’ championship with 11 scheduled races remaining.
Lingering uncertainty surrounding the final races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East only adds to the dilemma Mercedes is facing.
"Every race adds mileage and learning across Mercedes and the customer teams. Components are checked continually, and we assess whether previous containment measures have solved the underlying issues,” Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained.
"Our confidence in running a power unit to a sixth or seventh event may be higher in a few races than it is today, so the plans are reviewed after every weekend.”
Where could Russell take a new engine?
Following the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, F1 heads to the new Madrid street circuit for the Spanish Grand Prix. It is highly unlikely that Mercedes will opt to fit a new power unit at Madrid given it is uncharted territory.
After the Spanish Grand Prix, there are three more street circuits on the calendar in Baku, Singapore and Las Vegas.
One option could be for Russell to take a grid penalty at Malaysia, which falls directly between Azerbaijan and Singapore. Sepang is one of the best tracks for overtaking opportunities, however, the event is the home race of Mercedes’ fuel supplier Petronas.
Other viable venues to serve a grid drop could be at COTA, Mexico City, or Interlagos, though Brazil will likely be deemed as being too close to the end of the season.
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