Russell promises ‘all-out attack’ from back of Singapore grid amid engine penalty

George Russell has promised an “all-out attack” in the Singapore Grand Prix as he prepares to line up at the back of the grid thanks to an engine-related penalty.

Russell has been forced to take on new power unit components following his late-race retirement at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last time out, which cost him valuable championship points.

The subsequent penalty will be a minimum of 10 positions depending on the exact parts Mercedes switch out, and how many of his allowances for the season that he exceeds.

As per the regulations, the first time the allocation of any one of the elements is exceeded, a 10-place grid penalty will be applied, with the second time this occurs (and so on) resulting in a five-place grid drop – all penalties at the same event applying in a cumulative manner.

If a driver incurs a penalty exceeding 15 grid places, they will be required to start the race at the back of the field regardless.

Asked about his mindset and approach arriving in Singapore, with the grid penalty hanging over him, Russell said: “All-out attack; just trying to enjoy the weekend.

“Obviously, if you could choose where to take the penalty in the season, this [track] would be probably the second bottom of the list after Monaco. But unfortunately, just with how things have panned out, we have no choice but to take it here.

“Also, because it’s so early, we’ve still got seven races to go, we’ll probably have to take another one down the line as well, so it’s obviously not an ideal situation. But Singapore is a place I love, and I’ll try and carve my way through the pack.”

Another topic of note for Mercedes heading into the Marina Bay event is the team’s plan to run old and new versions of their W17 challenger – championship leader Kimi Antonelli due to press on with the latest updates, and Russell set to revert to the package he drove to pole position and victory in Azerbaijan.

“It is back,” said Russell of his previous specification car, given the question marks over Mercedes’ upgrades at Sepang. “Obviously Malaysia was the worst weekend of the year for us as a team, in terms of pace, Qualifying result.

“Of course, we probably both would have been on the podium, but it was a difficult one, and we don’t know whether that was Malaysia specific or whether that was anything to do with the upgrade.

“There are no major signs telling us it’s anything to do with the upgrade, but we don’t measure performance in F1 on how much downforce a car produces. You measure it with a stopwatch, and the stopwatch wasn’t great in Malaysia, so let’s see this weekend.

“I’m very happy to be back on that package and do the compare, and I’m not really in any sort of fight this weekend, or the championship for that regard, so it’s the right place to do it.”

Russell’s penalty will be applied for Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, rather than Saturday’s Sprint, in which eight points are up for grabs.