A victim of a water leak in qualifying, George Russell will benefit from a preventive engine change before the start, without being penalized on the grid.
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Mercedes has confirmed that it has made a change to George Russell’s car after the incident at the end of Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying.
The Briton had stopped at the first corner a few moments after completing his last fast lap in Q3. On the radio, Russell had quickly reported a problem related to his power unit, which was suffering from a water leak.
As a precautionary measure, the German team decided to intervene before the start of the race.
Mercedes replaces the internal combustion engine
After a thorough inspection of the car, Mercedes chose to replace Russell’s internal combustion engine (ICE).
However, this is not a technical evolution, but simply the replacement of a damaged component with another strictly identical one.
In a statement, the team explained the reasons for this intervention.
“During George’s last lap in Q3, we detected a loss of pressure in his car’s cooling system and asked him to stop as a precaution once his lap was completed.”
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No grid penalty
Good news for George Russell: this operation will not result in any penalty.
The installed engine is the fourth internal combustion engine used by the driver this season, which is the last one allowed by the regulations without penalty.
Mercedes therefore remains within the quota provided by the FIA.
“After further checks, we chose to replace the power unit before the race using the fourth engine of the season, which remains within the allowed allocation.”
Russell retains his position
The team also specifies that this change is only intended to replace a defective element with a component of the same specification.
“As this replacement concerns a damaged component replaced by an identical element, George will not receive any grid penalty.”
Russell will therefore retain his sixth place on the starting grid of the Hungarian Grand Prix, a position he inherited after the penalties imposed on Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli.
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