F1 Italy: FIA announce Kimi Antonelli 30-place grid penalty at Monza

Antonelli with his eyes shut and arms crossed on FIA press conference sofa at British GP — Photo: © IMAGO

Italian Grand Prix

FIA announce 30-place grid penalty for Kimi Antonelli at Italian Grand Prix

Not a happy home grand prix

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Friday 4 September 2026 20:44 Updated: 09:12

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The FIA has confirmed that Kimi Antonelli will take a 30-place grid penalty for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.

It was well known that the championship leader would head to the back of the field for his home race this weekend for taking a new power unit outside of his annual allotment, and the extent of his penalty has now been revealed.

Antonelli will be joined at the back by Alex Albon – the Williams driver in more familiar territory than his Mercedes counterpart – after the latter was handed a 20-place penalty of his own for similar reasons.

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Albon's penalty is ten places lighter as, while both took a fifth engine (ICE) and fourth control electronics unit (PU-CE), Antonelli also took a fourth energy store (ES) – with each carrying a ten-place penalty.

In an unrelated penalty, Mercedes will pay a €100 fine after Antonelli was caught breaking the pitlane speed limit by 0.1kmh in free practice.

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Antonelli set for tough home race

The disparity between the penalties may not ultimately matter a great deal, but it is at least notable for Mercedes deciding to take their medicine all at once on this switch.

The decision document released by the FIA read of Antonelli's punishment: "The penalty is imposed in accordance with Article B8.2.8 of the FIA F1 Regulations.

"The use of each additional element in this case carries a 10 grid place penalty therefore there is an accumulation of 30 places.

"Subject to Car 12 being classified in the results of Qualifying, Car 12 will be allocated a grid position in the race in accordance with Article B2.5.4b.iv of the FIA F1 Regulations."

Antonelli: Monza offers many options

Antonelli was asked after Friday's practice running what he expects when trying to cut through the field from the back of the grid on Sunday, and revealed that his long practice runs gave him something of an idea of how other teams may be using their battery deployment.

"Yeah, I mean it's a track where you can really do so many different things and you know it was interesting in the long run today running behind other cars to see what they were doing differently, where they were deploying compared to us," he told Sky Sports.

"So it was very interesting, and yeah, that's why you know I think we've got a lot of data, and now we look forward to tomorrow."