Mercedes driver George Russell has confirmed he will face an additional grid penalty this season, on top of the one already incurred for this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix. Russell will start Sunday's race from the back of the grid after fitting a new engine, exceeding his permitted allocation for the season.
The Briton stated that he will require another new engine once a planned upgrade becomes available, in order to complete the remaining seven races of the season. Russell explained that with a limit of four engines per season, equating to six races each, and seven races left, another penalty is unavoidable.
Russell's engine failure in Malaysia disrupted Mercedes' original strategy to use his older engine until the upgrade, likely for the United States Grand Prix in Austin. He noted that Singapore is the second-hardest track for overtaking, making it an undesirable location for a penalty, but a lack of available engines from earlier in the season due to failures left him no choice.
In Singapore, Russell will also revert to an older specification car. Mercedes introduced an aerodynamic upgrade in Malaysia, which did not deliver the expected performance. To assess if this was track-specific or an issue with the upgrade, Mercedes is splitting car specifications, with Russell using the spec from his Azerbaijan win and Antonelli running the new spec.