Russell to start fifth in Brazil after ICE grid penalty

George Russell will take a five-place grid penalty for the São Paulo Grand Prix after Mercedes replaced the internal combustion engine in his car. The change is a standard ICE swap using a part from the car's seasonal hardware pool, and it involves replacing the V6 block and its core mechanical components. Exceeding a driver's seasonal allocation of any power unit element automatically triggers a grid penalty under F1's cost-containment rules.

Russell said the timing made sense, noting he had to take a penalty at some point between Singapore and the end of the season. He pointed to Lewis Hamilton's recovery from a far heavier grid penalty at Interlagos in 2021, when Hamilton started tenth and went on to win the race. Russell said he hoped to fight back through the field in a similar way.