Two teams have looked at the same rule book and reached opposite conclusions this week. Ferrari will absorb Charles Leclerc’s grid penalty in Baku with a fresh internal combustion engine, with Ferrari expected to fit an ADUO2-specification unit at the Baku City Circuit. Mercedes have gone the other way, saving Russell’s hit for the moment their own upgraded power unit is actually on the car.
“We were always going to take my penalty with the ADUO upgrade. Otherwise, if I took it there, I’d have to take it again. So it makes zero sense for me,” he told reporters ahead of Baku, according to The Race.
Russell had already exhausted his allocation of internal combustion engine, turbo, energy store and control electronics before Baku. Taking a new full-spec engine at Baku would have handed him a back-of-the-grid start, then a second back-of-the-grid start weeks later when the ADUO upgrade arrived and forced a fresh installation. Rolling the two events into a single Austin weekend collapses that double hit into one.
Antonelli’s Monza template did not fit Russell
Kimi Antonelli, Russell’s Mercedes teammate, went the other way at Monza, taking his own penalty and driving from 19th on the grid to a first Formula 1 victory. His component situation gave him room the senior driver does not have: he installed a new ICE, energy store and control electronics at Monza but kept the option to change other elements without triggering another penalty. Russell has no such flexibility.
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“With hindsight, Monza would have been the ideal place to take the penalty,” Russell said, according to RacingNews365.
The plan slid back from the flyaways
Mercedes had initially eyed the Azerbaijan-Malaysia-Singapore flyaway stretch as the debut window for the upgraded specification. That schedule has moved back. Sources now point to the US Grand Prix at Austin on 23-25 October as the more probable introduction, with Mexico City and Interlagos completing the run.
The upgrade, understood to include a revised turbo, is available to Mercedes under the FIA’s Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities framework, the ADUO system that opens development windows for internal combustion engines judged uncompetitive on performance grounds. Antonelli will also get the new specification when it lands.
A 66-point deficit shapes what Russell is racing for
Antonelli’s Monza win extended his championship lead over Russell to 66 points with 10 races remaining, according to Crash.net. Russell heads into Baku with the immediate task of keeping that gap from widening before Mercedes’ coordinated engine swap in Austin locks him into another Sunday from the back.
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