{"id":887998,"date":"2026-09-11T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887998\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T10:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:00:17","slug":"russell-set-to-take-f1-engine-penalty-after-mercedes-introduces-power-unit-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887998\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell set to take F1 engine penalty after Mercedes introduces power unit upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> says he will take an engine penalty when Mercedes<\/a> introduces its upgraded Formula 1 power unit.<\/p>\n

Both Mercedes drivers have exceeded or are expected to exceed their power unit allowance for the 2026 season. Kimi Antonelli<\/a> did so last weekend in Monza, where he took a back-of-the-grid penalty and scythed his way through the field to take a historic victory from 19th.<\/p>\n

Russell, however, is waiting for Mercedes to launch its engine updates in order to get a brand-new powertrain. This is expected to occur in late October, at the Austin or Mexico City round.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re waiting to take my penalty with the ADUO upgrade,\u201d the Briton said. \u201cOtherwise, if I took it [in Monza], I’d have to take it again. So it made zero sense for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being universally recognised as having the best power unit, Mercedes has been allowed to upgrade it by the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities system, which is based on the internal combustion engine\u2019s performance. Red Bull Ford has been ranked as the top engine and therefore can\u2019t upgrade its powertrain.<\/p>\n

\"Andrea <\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Antonelli too will take a penalty when Mercedes introduces its new power unit, but given he has already exceeded his allocation, this will trigger only a five-place penalty per new component instead of 10 spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we’re changing everything now to avoid problems later on,\u201d the Italian explained in Monza. \u201cAnd, as I said before, this is the best track to do it.”<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the likes of Ferrari<\/a> have already introduced two upgrades this season \u2013 Mercedes is allowed just one \u2013 and Russell therefore expects the pecking order to evolve in a \u201cvery interesting\u201d way when the Silver Arrow is finally updated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think, as a team, we’re under threat. And, I think it’ll be very interesting when we bring our upgrades,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Filip Cleeren and Roberto Chinchero<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell says he will take an engine penalty when Mercedes introduces its upgraded Formula 1 power unit.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[12295,64,63,817,813,816,3875,254733,945,457685,254732,85],"class_list":["post-887998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-madring","tag-mercedes","tag-russell-set-to-take-f1-engine-penalty-after-mercedes-introduces-power-unit-upgrade","tag-spanish-gp","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}