Mercedes has now confirmed that George Russell will take a grid penalty at this weekend’s Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix following his retirement in Malaysia.
The Mercedes driver was running third under the safety car, but then suddenly pulled over at Turn 1 with five laps remaining due to a power unit failure at Sepang last weekend.
It was subsequently presumed that his Silver Arrow would need a new engine for Singapore and if so, a grid penalty would be the consequence as Russell has already used the permitted four in a season.
Mercedes has now confirmed Russell will start towards the back at Marina Bay this Sunday – a track he won at last year.
Team boss Toto Wolff said in Mercedes’ Singapore preview: “George has the added challenge of a power unit penalty, which will mean starting from the back of the grid on Sunday, following the engine failure in Malaysia.
“That is particularly frustrating given the way he drove last weekend and the result he deserved to be fighting for.
“Unfortunately, these things are part of the sport and our focus now is on giving him the best possible car and opportunities to fight back through the field.
“We need to maximise this final sprint weekend of the year, keep learning, and score the strongest result we can with both cars. Singapore will be an important test of our understanding and our resilience as a team.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, George Russell, Mercedes, race start
Photo by: Srinivasa Krishnan
This is particularly damning for Russell as he tries to claw back an 84-point deficit to his championship-leading team-mate Kimi Antonelli with just seven rounds remaining.
It also means that he is now likely to miss out on the updated Mercedes engine under the Additional Development and Upgrades Opportunities system, which the team was planning to give him later in the season.
So Mercedes hopes now lay with Antonelli to get the team back to winning ways, after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated from pole at Sepang with the Italian in second.
“Malaysia was obviously a very difficult weekend for us,” added Wolff. “We have spent the days since then working hard to understand why our performance was not where it should have been.
“We have identified several areas we need to investigate further, but F1 doesn’t offer simple answers and we need more evidence before drawing firm conclusions.
“Singapore gives us an immediate opportunity to continue that work. The characteristics of the circuit are very different and that will help us build a clearer picture of where we are.
“That is why we will evaluate both the latest update package and our previous specification across the weekend to ensure we fully understand the direction we need to take.”
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