Mercedes confirms the penalty, but not yet the date
George Russell will take a power unit penalty before the end of the season. Mercedes confirmed as much on Thursday, although it would not say at which Grand Prix.
Bradley Lord, the team’s deputy chief, laid out the official line on the manufacturer’s in-house radio. “We have not yet finalised where George will take his penalty, but both drivers will be affected.” Both Mercedes cars have gone beyond the four-engine allowance for the year.
Lord explained how the damage was done. “George retired in Canada, Kimi retired in Barcelona, and George also stopped at the end of qualifying in Hungary. If that had happened in the race, the impact could have been far worse.” Three power unit issues have chewed through the yearly allocation long before autumn.
Try it for $0.99.
A calendar with very few openings
Andrea Kimi Antonelli already knows his fate. His penalty will come at Monza next weekend, in front of his home crowd in Italy.
Russell does not have that luxury. The Brit arrives at the Italian Grand Prix 59 points behind his team-mate. He is tied for second in the championship with Lewis Hamilton, his former Mercedes team-mate. Starting from the back at Monza would amount to waving goodbye to a title he has been openly targeting.
The next round offers little relief. Madrid is set to host the Spanish Grand Prix for the first time, on a mixed street-and-permanent layout where climbing through the field should be a grind. As for the final two races of the season, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, they are not even guaranteed to go ahead yet.
Brackley still has a tough call to make
“We have to manage the remaining events so both cars finish the season with the freshest, most competitive hardware possible,” Lord continued. “It is a constant trade-off between running components with high mileage and paying the points price of a grid penalty, then having to fight back through traffic.”
Russell had rediscovered some form at Zandvoort last week. He won the sprint, then finished third in the race behind Antonelli after letting him through under team orders. That move had already cost him three championship points. The power unit penalty will cost him a lot more.
See the rest of the F1 news on our mathodds site and app!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply