George Russell anticipates one final engine penalty before end of 2026 season

[p]Mercedes confirmed that [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/russell-george/xxF56RaN/"]Russell[/a] ‌had no engines left in his season's allocation of four and would have to take a new one ‌for the Singapore sprint weekend. Team boss Toto Wolff said the Briton would ‌start Sunday's race from the rear of the field.[/p][p]Russell retired from last weekend's Bahrain Grand ‌Prix in Malaysia with a power unit problem five laps from the finish ‌while running third, leaving him 84 points behind teammate and championship leader [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/antonelli-andrea-kimi/ptGu0mT1/"]Kimi Antonelli[/a].[/p][p][b]"The engine wasn't stretched too long. It was the sixth race of the engine and obviously four engines a year, ‌six races per engine when you split it up,"[/b] Russell ⁠told reporters on Thursday.[/p][p]"We actually put that ‌engine in on Sunday in Budapest, so it was actually the sixth race, but minus ​qualifying and the practice sessions of Budapest. We were waiting to take the engine penalty... but unfortunately, we've had to take it here.[/p][p][b]"But with seven ​races remaining - that's longer than the engines are designed for, unfortunately - that means I'll be taking another penalty at some point between the next race and the end ⁠of the season.[/b][/p][p]"So it feels ​a little bit like one thing after another right now, but that's just how the cookie crumbles."[/p][embed guid="aaad4758-f489-4773-ac43-c78b8f1451a0" url="https://x.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/2108170430540374435" social-type="twitter" /][h2]Different car specifications[/h2][p]Mercedes will run different car specifications this weekend, with Antonelli continuing to develop their new package while Russell reverts to the setup that carried him to ‌victory in Baku.[/p][p][b]"Actually I instigated the conversation prior to the race on Sunday,"[/b] Russell added.[/p][p]"So when the failure happened, it was kind of a no-brainer, because we were kind of 50-50 about it pre-race and I was more in favour of doing it. And that was even pre-race, whereas now it is a total no-brainer.[/p][p][b]"So this engine penalty this weekend is just giving a good opportunity to roll back. It's a car that I won in Baku with."[/b][/p][p]Antonelli remains optimistic about the new package even though the results were not evident in Sepang, where he finished second behind Red ‌Bull's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/verstappen-max/UV3mgeXB/"]Max Verstappen[/a].[/p][p][b]"I think there's an actual improvement. It's just we didn't quite see ​it in Sepang and I think that's why it was such an outlier,"[/b] ‌he said.[/p][p]"But hopefully this weekend we will be able to understand it more, put the car in a better place and be able to use its full potential.[/p][p][b]"We really want to understand this new package and try to extract the maximum out of it because the team has done a tremendous job. ⁠They've put in so much work on ⁠this new package and it would ‌be just a shame to write it off so early."[/b][/p]