George Russell's retirement from the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia could leave him facing two separate grid penalties for new power unit components, Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord has revealed.
Russell pulled off at the Sepang International Circuit after an undiagnosed power unit failure ended his race behind the late safety car, with just a handful of laps to go.
Running third at the time, just behind team-mate and F1 drivers' championship rival Kimi Antonelli, the Mercedes driver saw the deficit in the standings grow from a would-be 69 points to a potentially decisive 84-point hole.
"He came on the radio behind the safety car and said the power unit was starting to sound funny," Lord told media, including RacingNews365.
"We saw sensors then misbehaving, and it was clear we had to pull the car over, and we'd had a failure of some sort.
"We still need to understand what it means for his [power unit] pool, because he's not rich in low-mileage power units either, so that may mean we need to alter what had been our previous plan. But we'll understand that in more detail in the next hours."
A costly compound effect
Mercedes had been planning to introduce its next Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) power unit specification during the Americas triple header, with Austin and Mexico City both mentioned as possible venues.
The ADUO mechanism allows manufacturers whose internal combustion engines trail the season's benchmark, which is currently Red Bull-Ford's, to earn extra in-season development tokens, and Mercedes qualified for those at both of the first two evaluation points.
But Russell's Sepang failure threatens to force Mercedes into using a fresh power unit element before that upgrade is even ready, meaning a second penalty could follow once the ADUO-specification unit arrives later in the season.
Asked if that means Russell may need to take a grid penalty earlier than planned, and before the ADUO upgrade arrives, Lord replied: "Potentially so, yeah. That's what we need to understand.
"But yes, there may be a double whammy effect there, which, for him, after such a gut-wrenching blow, and it was devastating to see him have to pull off as he did...
"Yeah, there may be a double whammy effect there that is just a really unfortunate consequence of that issue."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the Bahrain GP in Malaysia, but also look ahead to this weekend's race in Singapore. The confusing and shocking start is a major talking point as is Red Bull's rise.
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