This past weekend George Russell retired from the Bahrain Grand Prix with an engine failure six laps before the end of the race. He was running third under the safety car, and his power unit just gave out.
Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord said the investigation is still underway, but that the cause is clearly mechanical. “We’ve been able to do a first inspection, it’s clearly a mechanical failure on the power unit side. Exactly what the root cause is we still need to determine, but the consequence was clear for all to see.”
Drivers get four power units a season, and that was Russell’s last one. Fitting a fifth triggers an automatic penalty, so he starts Sunday’s Grand Prix from the back of the grid. Saturday’s sprint isn’t affected — he keeps whatever he qualifies for that one.
Mercedes had been planning for him to take this penalty in Austin, which isn’t until the end of the month, because Austin is where the ADUO upgrade spec was supposed to go in. Now the penalty gets spent here instead, and the upgrade that was supposed to come with it doesn’t.
And the timing couldn’t be any worse, because Singapore is about the worst track on the calendar to start a race from the back of. The layout is 19 corners in 4.927 kilometers, lined with concrete walls, with no run-off anywhere. That is why qualifying is absolutely crucial here: you’ll finish the race around the slot you started in. And on top of that, it’s a sprint weekend, which means one hour of practice to learn a track he’s starting at the back of anyway.
As for the championship, there is an 84-point gap between Antonelli and Russell, and there are only seven rounds left this season. Russell has said it himself: his chances of winning the drivers championship are “exceptionally unlikely.”
There may be a second penalty later this season too, and that depends on what Mercedes does next. If they fast-track the ADUO upgrade to Singapore, this one penalty covers both and that is the end of it. If they hold the upgrade back for Austin, Russell takes another grid drop to fit it.
That engine didn’t just cost Russell fifteen points. It cost him the next race too.