Mercedes launches Russell investigation as Singapore penalty looms

SEPANG – Mercedes has confirmed it is investigating the root cause of George Russell’s race-ending power unit failure at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

It is a power failure that is expected to force the Briton to exceed his allocation of four power units for each driver per season, therefore incurring a penalty that will drop him to the rear of the grid at the next race in Singapore.

Mercedes hunt for ‘root cause’ of George Russell’s failure

Russell lost further ground in the F1 title battle against teammate Kimi Antonelli after retiring with six laps to go in Malaysia.

Russell was on the cusp of a third-place finish on Sunday when he pulled to the side of the track as his Mercedes power unit cried enough.

The moment was eerily similar to that suffered by Lewis Hamilton in 2016, a campaign which saw then-Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg ultimately come out on top.

Russell’s retirement saw him lose 18 points to Antonelli; the margin increasing to 84 with only a handful of races remaining.

“The big event of the race for us really was that DNF for George,” deputy team principal Bradley Lord told the Mercedes Debrief.

“It made it a very bittersweet afternoon, seeing him having to pull to the side of the track with just five laps to go.

“Our investigation so far: we’ve got the car back, we’ve been able to do a first inspection.

“It’s clearly a mechanical failure on the PU side. Exactly what the root cause is, we still need to determine, but the consequence was clear for all to see.

“A devastating blow for the team and 15 points lost, but most especially, of course, for George, who was on for a very, very solid podium finish.”

Mercedes has been the dominant team this year, but team boss Toto Wolff issued an apology to Russell via social media in the aftermath, conceding that the team’s reliability this year has been below expectations, and reflecting on the threat posed by Ferrari in the constructors’ championship.

However, it would take a significant run of misfortune for the Scuderia to overcome Mercedes, with the current gap sitting at 151 points.

Kimi Antonelli vs George Russell: Mercedes head-to-head stats for F1 2026 season

F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between teammates

F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates

Mercedes brought a significant upgrade to Malaysia, the home venue of title partner Petronas.

Despite topping two of the three practice sessions, the team’s pace disappeared in qualifying, with Antonelli recovering a third-place grid slot with the assistance of a penalty for Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar.

Assessing the success of the package, Lord said: “The combination potentially of the update, track temperature, and track surface caused an interaction and a set of behaviours that meant the car was not in its usual happy state.

“The drivers were having to turn the car on the throttle in the slow corners. That was further exacerbating the challenges with tyre temperature.

“That’s not an easy thing to unpick. It’s a bit of a 3D problem that we need to work through and then figure out exactly what steps we take going forward to make sure we’ve got the base understanding that we need to understand that the update is working well and that we’re heading in the right direction in our development, not just for this year’s car but for next year as well.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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