Mercedes driver George Russell will start Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix five places behind his provisional grid spot after installing his sixth internal combustion engine of the season.
The penalty follows a series of power‑unit problems this year, most recently a failure at Bahrain, which made a sixth unit inevitable before the year’s end. The team decided to perform the change at Interlagos, drawing inspiration from Lewis Hamilton’s remarkable 2021 recovery from 20th to fifth at the same circuit.
“We always had to take a grid penalty at some point between Singapore and the end of the year and we felt like a good place to take it,” Russell said on Mercedes’ social channels. “Obviously, Lewis took a very big penalty here a number of years ago and did pretty well. Five places isn’t that bad.”
George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
The engine change marks another setback for Russell in a troubled 2026 season, where he has struggled to match the pace of newly crowned champion Kimi Antonelli.
Speaking on Thursday, Russell acknowledged the mental toll of repeatedly having to recover from disappointing weekends.
“I probably just feel a bit exhausted this season of constantly picking myself back up. When you get kicked to the ground you pick yourself back up, then you get kicked down again, you pick yourself back up. I was hoping to do that maybe twice in the season, not every other weekend,” he said with a wry smile.
Russell, now fourth in the drivers’ championship behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, has long argued that the 2026 power‑unit regulations penalise his driving style. He hopes upcoming technical adjustments, including reduced electric power allocation and tyre changes, will help him rebound next year.
“The power unit changes next year. The tyres are changing slightly for next year.” he said. “I’ve had a lot more good years than bad years. I don’t think there’s a single athlete in the world who only goes through great years every single year.
“It’s the way you bounce back from those years to continue having the belief and courage to return to those positive ways, and that mental resilience. What this year has taught me is that I still believe in myself and next year we fight again.”