Lewis Hamilton predicts Mercedes penalties after worrying reliability trend

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes is likely to incur a grid penalty later this season, with the team’s early battery-related reliability issues threatening to exhaust its power unit allocation.

Both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have suffered a retirement this season through battery-related problems, with Mercedes’ customers McLaren also having suffered with reliability at times.

Lewis Hamilton expects future Mercedes penalty after reliability concerns

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Russell retired from the lead at the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this season, before Antonelli suffered a similar fate in the closing laps of the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, both with a battery failure.

Power unit parts are strictly limited, with drivers allowed no more than three Energy Store and MGU-K units through the course of this season as part of that allocation, which will reduce to two from 2027.

Any parts taken beyond the season’s allowance prompt an immediate 10-place grid penalty, and while Mercedes has shown itself to be a powerful engine with a couple of early reliability retirements, Ferrari has proven reliable, albeit with an apparent power deficit.

Hamilton was full of praise for how Ferrari has been able to produce a reliable car from the off in the SF-26, adding that Mercedes’ current reliability issues are unlike anything typically associated with the Brackley and Brixworth-based team.

However, after a battery problem each for Russell and Antonelli, that opens the door for potential penalties further down the line – with the Scuderia needing to do all it can to stay on Mercedes’ tails.

“Massively impressed, massively impressed,” Hamilton said of how Ferrari has adapted to the 2026 regulations to PlanetF1.com and others.

“I think we came into the season knowing that we needed to level up in processes and just how we executed on race weekends, and that’s something that we were pushing for last year.

“Every single individual brings so much to the table and is bringing their best to the table, and the guys in the garage work so hard for the pit stops. We’ve got great pit stops, and then everyone back in the factory has worked so hard to bring this consistency, and that’s really what I think ultimately is going to make the difference this year.

“You’re seeing Mercedes, maybe Mercedes engines in general have had more issues this year than they normally would have, and I don’t know what the situation on the battery side of this for George and for Kimi, but I’m sure that at some point there must be a penalty, I would imagine, in the sense that we only have, was it two battery cells or something like that?

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“That’s going to be key for us, is just holding on to this, maximising the points, executing to the best of our ability, even when it’s the case that we can’t win.”

Hamilton now sits 32 points behind Antonelli’s lead at the top of the standings, after the Italian suffered damage on his car that resulted in two extra pit stops, which saw him fall to ninth on the road, before a five-second penalty dropped him out of the points places.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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