George Russell will not use the theoretically faster Mercedes upgrade package at this weekend’s Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, something Russell first suggested.
Russell’s retirement in Malaysia means he will take a grid penalty this weekend for engine component changes, but he will also use a very different aerodynamic specification to teammate Kimi Antonelli.
That’s because Russell’s Mercedes was restored before the upgrade was introduced in Malaysia last weekend.
After its confusing start, Mercedes had left the door open to split its drivers between the old and new packages for Singapore, which it confirmed on Wednesday, but on Thursday Russell revealed he had in fact “initiated the conversation before Sunday’s race” in Malaysia.
“So when the failure happened, it was a no-brainer because we were kind of 50-50 before the race, and I was more in favor of doing it, and that was even before the race, whereas now it’s a total no-brainer,” Russell added.
Singapore is a crucial weekend for Mercedes to understand its new upgrade package. There’s nothing in his data to suggest he’s not performing as expected, but he was convincingly beaten by Red Bull in Malaysia.
The upgrade in Malaysia was Mercedes’ first major package since the Canadian GP in May.
“There are no signs telling us that the upgrade wasn’t working and we know that the car we had in Baku was the same car we had in Budapest and Zandvoort. In Baku we were on pole by eight tenths and in Budapest we were four tenths behind,” Russell said.
“So these fluctuations, even with a consistent car and your rivals with the same car, are drastic; you have a fluctuation, plus or minus a second can be this delta.
“So we’re pretty confident it’s specific to Malaysia. When you look at Red Bull’s pace, they’ve clearly overperformed compared to where they’ve been this season, compared to all the other teams.
“Actually, when you look at our pace compared to McLaren and Ferrari, it wasn’t too different.
“That engine penalty this weekend gave us a good opportunity to go back, it’s a car I won with in Baku. So let’s see.”
With Singapore being a sprint weekend, it would not be practical for Mercedes to run the new and old packages consecutively in FP1 only and then run both drivers on the same specification for sprint qualifying.
Antonelli (new) and Russell (old) are therefore essentially stuck for the weekend in Singapore.
Mercedes needs answers about its upgrades because important decisions regarding the 2027 car need to be made, which will depend on whether the upgrade proves to be an actual improvement.
The key questions are whether the low-speed performance deficit that hurt Malaysia was track-specific or improvement-specific, and whether the lack of straight-line speed was a consequence of the new package.
A weekend-long back-to-back test is the best way to get those answers quickly, because you can’t afford to get out of this triple header without them.
Its comfortable position in both championships – 106 points ahead of the best non-Mercedes among drivers and 151 points ahead of Ferrari among constructors – also means it can afford to sacrifice a bit of ultimate performance from its cars this weekend.
Mercedes could not accelerate ADUO
With Russell in need of a new powertrain, Mercedes assessed whether it could bring forward the launch of its planned ADUO 2 (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) upgrade from the US GP to Singapore.
But it’s not ready in time, so Russell will have to take an additional grid penalty after Singapore before the end of the season, a “double whammy” in the words of Mercedes F1 deputy team principal Bradley Lord.
Russell said: “The engine (which failed in Malaysia) wasn’t stretched too long. It was the engine’s sixth race and obviously you have four engines a year, six races per engine when you divide it.
“We actually started this engine on Sunday in Budapest, so it was actually the sixth race but without the qualifying and practice sessions in Budapest.
“We were expecting to take the engine penalty with the ADUO update, but unfortunately we had to take it here.
“But with seven races remaining, that’s longer than the engines are designed for and unfortunately it means I’ll take another penalty at some point between the next race and the end of the season.
“So yeah, it’s kind of feeling one thing after another right now, but that’s how the cookie crumbles.”
Russell is 84 points behind Antonelli with seven races remaining.
Gn sports
