Lewis Hamilton expecting Mercedes penalty as Ferrari strength highlighted

Lewis Hamilton expects Mercedes to take F1 engine penalties in 2026 as he highlighted the strengths of Ferrari's operation. 

Although Mercedes has the fastest car in the W17, it has been hit with reliability concerns, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli retiring in Canada and Barcelona, respectively with power unit issues, with Antonelli also dropping out of contention in the British GP with a wheel shield failure when hunting down Charles Leclerc.

In contrast, Ferrari has had strong reliability through 2026 with its power unit, with its only retirement coming via Leclerc in Monaco due to a brake issue causing him to crash into the barriers.

After round nine of the season, the Scuderia is 78 points behind Mercedes in the constructors' fight, with Hamilton 32 points behind leader Antonelli in the drivers' standings, and seven points behind second-placed Russell. 

Russell suffered a "catastrophic" loss of one of his allocated batteries with his Montreal DNF, with the part requiring to be sea-freighted back to Europe as it could not flown due to safety concerns. 

With this in mind, Hamilton feels Mercedes could have to take grid penalties later in the season - as he also highlighted the strength of Ferrari's operation as it looks to end its long title drought.

"Massively impressed," Hamilton began, when asked by media, including RacingNews365, when asked how impressed he was with Ferrari's reliability and race weekend execution. 

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

"Every single individual brings so much to the table and is bringing the best to the table. The guys in the garage worked 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 engines in general have had more issues this year than they normally would have, and I don't know what the situation is with the battery side of this for George and for Kimi, but at some point there must be a penalty, I would imagine, in the sense that we only have two battery cells or something like that. 

"But it's going to be key for us just holding onto this, maximising the points, executing to the best of our ability, even when it's the case that we can't win."