Mercedes have admitted it is "almost inevitable" they will have to take grid penalties in the second half of this Formula 1 season. The Silver Arrows won eight of the first 11 Grands Prix and that has put them in a strong position to win both titles, as they are 72 points clear of Ferrari while Kimi Antonelli has a healthy 50-point lead over nearest challenger Lewis Hamilton.
Reliability woes behind penalty risk
But those leads would have been more significant had they not suffered so many reliability problems. They have gone through more engine parts than they would have liked and the unfortunate side-effect of that situation will likely come back to bite them in the second half of the campaign.
Toto Wolff said he hopes Mercedes can avoid having to take a grid drop, though his deputy Bradley Lord is not so optimistic. "I think, looking at how many we've used in the first half of the season, it's almost inevitable that at some point there will be penalties to take," he said.
Engine part limits and tactical penalties
"It's realistically going to be hard to get to the end of the season on the existing hardware that we've got. We've got half a season to do. Kimi's on his fourth set of bits, so the next ones incur penalties, and George is on his third, in the first half of the year."
Drivers are restricted to a maximum of four internal combustion engines per season, while there are also annual limits on how many other engine components can be used. Going beyond those allowances triggers automatic grid penalties for the first event at which the new parts are put on the car.
Monza could be penalty venue despite home race
Teams often try to be tactical in terms of where and when they deliberately incur penalties when needed. They tend to choose circuits where overtaking is more possible, to give their drivers the best chance of coming back through the field and limiting the damage done by a penalty. One of them is Monza and, despite it being Italian Antonelli's home race, Wolff said he could consider taking a penalty there regardless.
The Austrian said: "There could be one [race] that can be very special for Kimi, but on paper looks like it's a good place to take an engine penalty. So we need to speak to Marco [Antonelli, Kimi's father] when we want to take an engine penalty in Monza. Baku is also one [possibility]." He also suggested it would "maybe take the pressure off" Antonelli at his home race, if he knew he was starting with a grid penalty.
Antonelli's record behind the wheel of F1 cars at the Italian Grand Prix circuit is not strong. He made his weekend debut there with an FP1 appearance in 2024 but crashed on his first flying lap, while he finished an unspectacular ninth in his first Monza race last year.
