Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Grid Penalty

  • Mercedes confirm Russell set for penalty

    Mercedes’ George Russell is set for a grid penalty at the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix, following an unavoidable engine change after his late retirement in Malaysia.

    While on course for a podium finish, Russell suffered a power unit failure during the closing laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix and had to pull over to the side of the track, marking his third non-scoring round of the season.

    The DNF has impacted his title hopes as teammate Kimi Antonelli extended his lead to 84 points in the driver’s standings and Russell’s likely penalty at the Marina Bay Circuit will make that gap even harder to close.

    He was expected to take a new engine later in the season once Mercedes had capitalised on the FIA’s ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) programme to introduce a new upgrade, however the damage from Malaysia means that they have been forced to bring it forward to Singapore.

    Russell will therefore exceed the season allocation of power unit components and be penalised, with the regulations specifying that a grid penalty will be imposed at the first event where each additional element over the quota is used.

    The penalty will be a minimum of 10 positions depending on the exact parts Mercedes switch out – effectively, the more new parts, the greater the grid drop.

    The incident was the latest in a string of reliability problems for Mercedes in 2026 – Russell previously retired from the Canadian Grand Prix due to a power unit failure, while Antonelli suffered in Barcelona.

    Malaysia was obviously a very difficult weekend for us. 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. 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.
    Toto Wolff, ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

  • Norris set for grid penalty at Belgian GP

    Lando Norris will face a 10 place grid penalty at the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix, with McLaren opting to fit a new power electronics unit to his car in an attempt to tackle their reliability struggles.

    Mercedes’ engines have been subject to criticism in recent rounds due to retirements that were out of drivers’ control, such as Kimi Antonelli’s in Barcelona.
    As one of their customer teams, McLaren haven’t been able to avoid enduring similar problems.

    Norris has been held back on multiple occasions by issues with the power unit, which cause his failure to start the Chinese Grand Prix and further complications in Japan and Monaco.

    As per the regulations, if a driver uses more power unit elements than the permitted allocation, a grid penalty will be imposed at the first event where each element is used. In this case, McLaren are hopeful that the overtaking opportunities at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps make this weekend the best time to suffer the setback.

    McLaren’s numerous upgrades have helped Norris recover some lost ground in the Drivers’ standings, where he now sits in fifth place with 97 points, but they are still eager to use their refreshed power unit and continued development to take the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari.

    McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team will fit car Number 1 with a fourth power electronics [unit] this weekend in Spa, exceeding our permitted number of allocated power electronics units and incurring a 10-place grid penalty. Car Number 1’s first power electronics unit suffered a terminal issue in China, which meant Lando was unable to start the race. Lando’s second power electronics unit, fitted in Japan, needed to be withdrawn for remedial work after suffering issues in Free Practice, which necessitated moving to a third and final power electronics unit within the permitted allocation. While the second power electronics unit was able to be repaired after the Japanese Grand Prix, it suffered a terminal issue in FP2 in Monaco, and was withdrawn from our allocation once again.
    McLaren’s statement.

  • Sainz, 10 place grid penalty

    Carlos Sainz is set to take a 10 place grid penalty for the French Grand Prix as he has exceeded his allocation of control electronics.

    Sainz’s Ferrari came to a fiery halt in Austria, as the Ferrari driver was challenging Max Verstappen for P2 and ahead of this weekend’s action in France he said that Ferrari were considering changing his power unit.

    Taking a 10-place grid penalty as the Scuderia have fitted a third control electronics (CE), exceeding his allocation of two for the season. He has also taken his second of two allowed energy stores.

    But speaking after heading FP2 at a baking-hot Paul Ricard track, Sainz strongly hinted that the 10 place drop was unlikely to be the end of his penalties this weekend, with more power unit changes seemingly coming his way.

    It was definitely a positive Friday. I didn’t do many laps on the short run on low fuel, but every lap that I did was very competitive, which shows the steps that we’re taking and the direction we’re taking is going in the right direction. I’m focusing more in the long run because I’m not going to be in that fight for pole position given the amount of penalties [I have]. We will see. I mean I took 10, so you can expect what’s coming next.

    Carlos Sainz on his penalty.

  • Hamilton to take grid penalty

    Lewis Hamilton, who is currently leading the 2021 championship by only two points is receiving a 10 place grid penalty for Sundays Turkish Grand Prix.

    His W12 has been fitted with a new internal combustion engine (ICE) and exhaust but the driver has only exceeded his allocations of new ICEs.

    It was expected for this to happen before the weekend, as Turkey is a strong track for Mercedes and Lewis even though he has never been on pole here. There was lots of rumours going around that Mercedes would take a penalty in the next couple of races.

    His rival, Max Verstappen took a full new power unit at Sochi which saw him start 20th and then finish on the podium in 2nd.

    Last year, at the Turkish GP it saw Lewis starting sixth to then win the race, it wasn’t an easy race in the wet either.

    My Opinion-

    I didn’t really see them taking the penalty anywhere else to be honest, and its good the fact its not at the back of the grid either, so he does have some work to do but not as much as we expected. If Mercedes get there strategy right and the rain comes into play then this may be Mercedes and Lewis’ weekend…