Russell Plans Another Grid Penalty In Las Vegas: Mercedes Reschedules Its Upgraded Power Unit Element

Mercedes driver George Russell has revealed he will take another grid penalty at the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November. The penalty will come from the fitting of an upgraded power unit element to his car. Asked by Sky Sports F1 when he would take the new element, Russell said it will probably be later in the season, maybe Las Vegas, but that it will be there at some point.

Why did the plan change?

Russell started the Singapore Grand Prix from the back of the grid because of a power unit change following the engine issue that forced him to retire late in the previous race in Malaysia. He recovered to ninth. Before the Malaysia reliability problem, Mercedes had planned for Russell to take a new power unit at the United States Grand Prix in Austin next weekend, as an upgrade was expected to be ready by then. It now appears he will take the new part three races later, in Las Vegas on 20-22 November.

The ADUO opportunity

Mercedes is using the opportunity granted by the FIA’s ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) system to improve its engine. The FIA’s ranking of Mercedes’ engine performance below Red Bull’s caused some dispute, with Red Bull arguing that Mercedes, which is dominating the constructors’ championship, already has the best power unit.

Russell said that with the choice of when to take the part, they will pick slightly easier tracks on which to overtake.

Title hopes all but over

Russell came into 2026 as championship favourite, with many pundits predicting Mercedes would have the best car and that Antonelli, in just his second F1 season, was not ready to challenge for the title. Instead, Antonelli has largely outpaced him, with eight wins to Russell’s three this season. With six rounds remaining, Russell now trails Antonelli by 102 points and is all but mathematically out of the title fight.

Russell: “The goal is to get on top of upgrades”

Mercedes brought an upgrade package to Malaysia that did not give it the instant performance it anticipated, so it ran the pre-Malaysia car with Russell and the new upgrades with Antonelli in Singapore. Russell said the goal now is to improve the car, recalling that Mercedes was the dominant team for much of the season. Looking at recent races, he said, Red Bull have been clearly the best: Verstappen was at a similar level to him in Baku, then dominated the last two weekends in Malaysia and Singapore. Right now, he said, the goal is to get on top of the updates.

In Singapore, Verstappen topped every competitive session of the sprint weekend, while Russell was leading the sprint race until he crashed.

Antonelli: “Light at the end of the tunnel”

Antonelli finished on the podium in Singapore after late overtakes on Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. The championship leader finished around 25 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen, and thinks Red Bull has made an “incredible step forward” while Mercedes is yet to extract the most from its own upgrades. He said it was a progressive weekend in which the team started off the pace and he struggled with the new package. The team did incredibly well to put the car in a better window, he said, and they now understand much more about how the aero package works, which is very different from the old one. He feels they are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and will keep pushing on the package, which will also help them understand which way to take next year’s car.

Remaining races

Formula 1 will race in the USA (23-25 October), Mexico (30 October-1 November), Brazil (6-8 November), Las Vegas (20-22 November), Qatar (27-29 November) and Abu Dhabi (4-6 December).