George Russell Takes a Five-Place Grid Penalty at Interlagos

George Russell will start the São Paulo Grand Prix five places lower than he qualifies. Mercedes is fitting a new internal combustion engine to his car this weekend, his sixth of the season, which takes him past the allocation each driver is allowed and triggers the penalty. Even from pole position, the best he can line up on Sunday is sixth.

It is the second time in four rounds that an engine change has cost Russell grid places, after a penalty in Singapore. His reaction was matter-of-fact. "We always had to take a grid penalty at some point," he said in a video for Mercedes' social channels. "Five places doesn't seem that bad and we'll try and come back through."

Why Interlagos

Mercedes had expected to take the hit at some point after Singapore, and the question was only where. They picked Interlagos because it is one of the circuits where overtaking is most realistic: a long run from the final corner up the hill to the start-finish line, a heavy braking zone into Turn 1 at the bottom of the Senna S, and a second straight down to Turn 4. A car that is quicker than the ones around it can make progress here in a way it can't at Monaco, Singapore or Hungary.

The size of the penalty helps too. Grid penalties for power unit parts escalate: the first time a driver goes over the allocation for a component costs ten places, and each further one five. Russell has already been through that first step this season, which is why a whole new combustion engine now costs him only five places. With the drivers' title settled, the only thing at stake for him personally is where he finishes in the standings.

The 2021 reference point

Russell pointed to Lewis Hamilton's drive here in 2021 as the kind of race he has in mind. That weekend Hamilton, then still driving for Mercedes, was disqualified from Friday qualifying over a rear-wing irregularity and started the Saturday sprint from last. He finished it fifth, then took a five-place engine penalty for Sunday, started tenth, and won the Grand Prix. It remains one of the great Interlagos drives, and proof that the track rewards a fast car starting out of position.

source: Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

A season shaped by reliability

Russell's 2026 has been a story of what might have been. He won in Austria from pole, beating his team-mate on the day, but Kimi Antonelli took the title with four rounds to spare while Russell has slipped to fourth in the drivers' standings. Reliability has been part of it: his retirement on lap 30 of the Canadian Grand Prix was the W17's first of the year, and the engine changes that followed have now cost him grid places twice in a month.

None of that changes the team result Mercedes are chasing this weekend. They can win the constructors' championship on Sunday by outscoring Ferrari by three points or more, so every place Russell recovers from his penalty counts towards that.

Friday's form

Russell finished fifth in first practice, 0.386 seconds behind Lando Norris, with Antonelli second. Qualifying on Saturday decides where he starts from, minus five places. At Interlagos, that is a starting point rather than a sentence, and Russell knows from the 2021 race exactly how far a fast Mercedes can come.

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Sources and further reading

• Sky Sports: George Russell to take five-place grid penalty at São Paulo GP for engine change
• RacingNews365: George Russell eyes Lewis Hamilton heroics as Brazil grid penalty confirmed
• GrandPrix.com: Russell confirms five-place São Paulo grid penalty
• Motorsport.com: "Exhausted" George Russell set for Brazilian F1 grid penalty
• Pit Debrief: Russell set for five-place grid penalty following Mercedes engine change