Lewis Hamilton has been handed a ten-place grid penalty for the Turkish Grand Prix after the team opted to take on a fourth combustion engine this weekend.
However, Hamilton won’t be starting at the back of the grid, as Max Verstappen did in Russia, because only one element on his engine has been changed.
The news doesn’t come as much of a surprise this week after the team admitted they knew they’d have to take the penalty at some point before the end of the season.
Speaking earlier this week, Team Principal Toto Wolff said that timing is everything, but that a DNF for avoiding the change would be worse than receiving the penalty at one of the remaining Grands Prix.
Speaking about the change, he said; “It’s a possibility.
“When, and how, is not yet decided.
“Most important is that you don’t DNF because of a reliability issue,” Wolff continued.
“You can cope with swings, whether you finish second, third, I think that is OK, the championship is going to go long. But if you don’t finish.
“So we are looking at the parameters of the engines, making sure we don’t suffer from any reliability problems.”
As we head to Turkey this weekend for the second time since 2011, Mercedes will be hoping to carry over Hamilton’s past luck at the Istanbul Park circuit.
“Lewis has been tremendous there,” said Wolff.
“But we have to take each race at a time.
“It’s so difficult, the cars are so close.
“I’m curious to see how this championship evolves.”
