Toto Wolff assessed Mercedes’ situation in the 2026 Formula 1 season and stated that the team is studying whether or not it will have strategic penalties of grid position loss for engine changes.
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In this championship, all drivers have one power unit change free of penalty. When an extra change is necessary and the penalty must be taken, teams choose circuits that facilitate overtaking to minimize the damage.
With both Kimi Antonelli and George Russell in the fight for the 2026 F1 title, Wolff said that if they need a completely new engine, Monza would be an option. “As for penalties for engine changes, I still have high hopes that we won’t have to go through that,” he said.
“We need to decide when this will happen, when it will be necessary to accept the penalty and on which tracks. It may be that [Monza] is a very special occasion for Kimi [Antonelli], but on paper, it seems like a good place to serve an engine change penalty,” he continued.
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However, the Austrian executive knows that the decision may not be well received around Antonelli. “So, I need to talk to Marco [Antonelli’s father] to see if we want to accept an engine penalty at Monza,” he said laughing. “You take the pressure off by starting from the back of the grid at Monza.”
“Our reliability simply hasn’t been good. Whether we will suffer a penalty or not, we will see,” he concluded.
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