FIA confirm 40-place grid penalty for British star at Singapore Grand Prix

The FIA have confirmed a 40-place grid penalty for Mercedes star George Russell at Sunday's 2026 F1 Singapore Grand Prix.

The 28-year British ace will start the 62-lap race from P21 at Marina Bay after taking new engine components from outside of his allocated allowance.

It's a penalty which was a virtual certainty to happen after the unfortunate Russell had been unfortunate to DNF late in last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix due to power unit issues in Sepang.

Russell knew he would be up against it coming into the weekend's action in Singapore, and Saturday's Sprint race brought yet more misery as he crashed out early to finish the day pointless.

Now he goes into Sunday's race facing a mountain to climb on a circuit where overtaking opportunities are limited and track position is everything.

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Russell grid penalty explained

We have an in-depth explainer on how engine penalties work in F1, but in simple terms this is what happened to George.

Per official FIA documents, he took the following new power unit components from outside of his allocation:

• 5th Engine (ICE)
• 5th Turbocharger (TC)
• 5th Exhaust Set (EXH)
• 4th MGU-K

Each of those changes brings with it a 10-place grid penalty, with the total amounting to 40 places. Only Red Bull's Isack Hadjar will start behind Russell on Sunday after he was unclassified in Qualifying.

Russell himself had qualified sixth on Saturday after agreeing with Mercedes to run a previous spec of his car before the upgrades against team-mate Kimi Antonelli's latest spec, given he will be starting near the back.

Russell title hopes hanging by a thread

Any realistic title hopes for Russell are now gone, and the mathematical ones are now fading fast after Saturday's Sprint.

George's DNF in that race - and the late McLaren-on-McLaren crash which elevated Antonelli to a final position of P4 - means he now trails his Italian team-mate by 89 points in the Drivers' standings.

Antonelli will start Sunday's race from P4, knowing that he could become the sport's youngest ever world champion as early as the United States Grand Prix in Austin on October 25.

There is one tiny crumb of comfort for Russell from this weekend so far - that late McLaren crash meant he was crowned the unofficial Sprint champion of 2026.

It will mean little after a season which had promised so much.

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