Mercedes unsure if George Russell's cracked engine can be repaired

Mercedes face an anxious wait to learn whether the engine George Russell damaged at the Hungarian Grand Prix can be saved, with the outcome carrying major implications for the team's championship push in the second half of the season.

Russell cracked the sump of his power unit when he ran across the kerbs at Turn 4 on his final flying lap in Q3 at the Hungaroring. The damage caused a water leak that sprayed across his rear tyres, wrecking the end of his lap before the team ordered him to stop as pressure dropped. "The lap was feeling good until then and then suddenly the lap wasn't," Russell said. "I didn't think much of it and the team told me the water was spraying over my tyres because as soon as we saw it in the data, the water leak, suddenly my tyre temperatures got really cold on the rear."

An initial inspection in the garage confirmed the crack, leaving Mercedes with no choice but to fit a fresh power unit for Sunday's race. The change cost no grid penalty, as Russell remains inside his seasonal allowance, but the Hungarian Grand Prix engine was the fourth and final unit he can use before punishment kicks in. Team-mate Kimi Antonelli had moved onto his fourth engine just one race earlier, meaning both Mercedes drivers are now staring at almost certain grid penalties during the second half of the season — a scenario that could have a significant bearing on the title fight.

There is, however, a possible reprieve. Mercedes intend to ship the damaged engine back to their Brixworth factory for detailed analysis to establish whether it can be repaired and returned to the pool. While a cracked sump sounds serious, manufacturers have successfully repaired power units in the past, most notably during the previous ground-effect era, when rock-stiff cars regularly battered engines out of action. Much will depend on the scale of the damage once the unit is stripped down at Brixworth.

The stakes are clear: if the engine can be brought back into rotation, Russell buys himself valuable breathing room; if not, he and Antonelli face the prospect of racing through the second half of the campaign with the threat of grid drops hanging over every weekend. Mercedes' response to the reliability questions raised by the W17 will be scrutinised closely when the championship resumes.

Sources

• https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/cracked-engine-could-doom-george-russell-to-a-future-grid-penalty/
• https://www.giornalemotori.com/2026/07/28/mercedes-in-apprensione-il-motore-di-george-russell-rischia-di-costargli-una-penalita-dopo-la-pausa-estiva/