Russell gets power unit penalty for Singapore GP

Mercedes has confirmed George Russell will take a power unit penalty at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, following his retirement in Malaysia.

Russell was running third in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday when he suffered a power unit failure that took him out of the race behind a late Safety Car. Not only did that cost him 15 points at the time, but it also means Russell will start from the back in Singapore due to the need to install a new power unit.

“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,” team principal Toto Wolff said. "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 maximize 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.”

Wolff also revealed that Mercedes will be running back-to-back comparisons of its updated car against its previous specification in Singapore, having struggled to extract the expect performance gains from its most recent package last weekend.

“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.”

Despite the challenges with its latest upgrade, Mercedes heads into the Singapore weekend with a 151-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, meaning its first mathematical opportunity to win the teams’ title is currently at the following race in Austin.