Mercedes drivers George Russell, Kimi Antonelli to split car packages at Singapore GP after Sepang struggles with updates
Mercedes to run with two different aero packages; George Russell expects second grid drop for another engine change before end of season; watch Practice at 9.30am followed by Sprint Qualifying at 1.30pm on Friday live on Sky Sports F1 as the Singapore GP weekend begins
Thursday 8 October 2026 16:35, UK
George Russell will race Mercedes' older-specification car, while Kimi Antonelli will run an upgraded package at the Singapore Grand Prix as the team bid to get to the bottom of why the updates introduced in Malaysia did not deliver the expected performance.
The world championship leaders brought their first big upgrade to their W17 cars since the end of May to last week's race but unexpectedly endured a challenging weekend on F1's return to Sepang, with Max Verstappen instead proving the dominant force and claiming Red Bull's first win of the season.
In an unusual move, Mercedes will now split their packages across their two drivers for the whole Sprint weekend in Singapore, with Russell - who will start at the back of Sunday's main race grid owing to an engine penalty, following his car's failure last Sunday - running the older aerodynamic package last raced in Baku and Antonelli the one that debuted with difficulty at Sepang.
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Russell revealed he was the one who first floated such an idea, with the decision to do so ultimately becoming a "no-brainer" once they knew he was going to be starting last for the Grand Prix this weekend anyway.
"Well, actually, I instigated the conversation prior to the race on Sunday," revealed Russell, who slipped a season-high 84 points behind team-mate Antonelli after dropping out of third place with five laps to go at Sepang.
"So when the failure happened, it was kind of a no-brainer because we were kind of 50-50 about it pre-race.
"And I was more in favour to do it, even pre-race. Whereas now, it is a total no-brainer."
It means Russell will again race with the package he took to an impressive victory in Azerbaijan two races ago.
"It is back!" said Russell of the Baku-spec W17.
"Obviously, Malaysia was the worst weekend of the year for us as a team in terms of pace, qualifying result.
"Of course, we probably both would have been on the podium [had his power unit not failed], but it was a difficult one. And we don't know whether that was a Malaysia specific or whether that was anything to do with the upgrade.
"There's no major science telling us there's anything to do with the upgrade, but we don't measure performance in F1 on how much downforce a car produces, you measure it with a stopwatch, and the stopwatch wasn't great in Malaysia.
"So let's see this weekend. I'm very happy to be back on that package and do the compare. I'm not really in any sort of fight this weekend, or the championship for that regard, so it's the right place to do it."
Will front wing addition unlock new package's performance?
Russell also revealed that the newer package running on Antonelli's car will be boosted by the arrival of a front wing in Singapore that had originally been due to be part of the initial package at Sepang.
"I hope the upgrade that is on Kimi's side works as we expect, because as a team, we need that to be the case, and it would be slightly concerning for us if the new package we had in Malaysia is not working as we expected," he added.
"We have a front wing this weekend that Kimi's running that we didn't have in Malaysia. The package was meant to come with the front wing - maybe that was a reason why it wasn't working so well.
"There's nothing telling us it shouldn't work. But of course, the car I had in Baku, I won in Baku, Kimi won in Madrid. It's still a fast car, so hopefully we can have some good fun."
Asked about the new front wing, Antonelli said: "I hope [it makes the difference]! That's the question we will try to answer.
"George is going back on the old package, which we know works really well, especially on these kind of tracks. On my side we will try to find and answer for this package and hopefully we will understand it more and finally extract the potential of the package.
"Of course, we will have the front wing, even though it's just one front wing, but let's see. I think Sepang was overall a little bit of an outlier because of the tarmac, the temperatures, but hopefully this weekend we will be able to put the car in a better place and extract more from the package."
Antonelli said he was happy to be sticking with the updated W17.
"We really want to understand this new package and try to strike the maximum out of it because the team has done a tremendous job," added the Italian
"They've put in so much work on this new package and it would be just a shame to write it off so early.
"I feel like I'm quite comfortable on keeping it and, actually, I really want to help the team out to understand it more and to try to extract the potential."
Antonelli also confirmed that he was "committed to the new package for the whole weekend", with no option to revert to the older-spec during the Sprint event should the older parts on Russell's car be proving more competitive.
Russell expects second grid penalty before season is out
While Antonelli will hope to contend for victory in both the Sprint and main Grand Prix at Marina Bay, Russell's hopes of fighting at the front are set to be restricted to the shorter-form race on Saturday ahead of his engine-change penalty being applied to Sunday's grid.
Russell will be running a fresh power unit all weekend, but it will not feature the ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) upgrade Mercedes have been working on as that update is not in Singapore.
The ADUO upgrade will instead be introduced at a later race, with the United States GP next up in two weeks' time.
Mercedes had hoped to coincide the expected introduction on Russell's car of a penalty-triggering fifth engine of the season at the same race that the ADUO was deployed, but that will now not be possible.
Russell said: "We were waiting to take the engine penalty with the ADUO update but obviously unfortunately we've had to take it here.
"But with seven races remaining, that's longer than the engines are designed for. Unfortunately it means I'll be taking another penalty at some point between the next race and the end of the season.
"So, yeah, it feels a little bit one thing after another right now but that's just how the cookie crumbles."
Russell, who won last year in Singapore, has vowed to throw caution to the wind this weekend as he bids to salvage a strong result.
"Yeah, all-out attack, just trying to enjoy the weekend," he added..
"Obviously, if you could choose where to take the penalty in the season, this would be probably second bottom of the list after Monaco. But, unfortunately, we had no choice but to take it here.
"Singapore is a place I love and, yeah, I'll try and carve my way through the pack."
Sky Sports F1's live Singapore GP Sprint weekend schedule
Friday October 9
9am: Singapore GP Practice (session starts at 9.30am)*
11.30am: Team Bosses' Press Conference
1pm: Singapore GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 1.30pm)*
Saturday October 10
9am: Singapore GP Sprint build-up*
10am: Singapore GP SPRINT*
1pm: Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying build-up
2pm: SINGAPORE GP QUALIFYING*
4pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday October 11
11.30am: Grand Prix Sunday: Singapore GP build-up
1pm: THE SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX
3pm: Chequered Flag: Singapore GP reaction
4pm: Ted's Notebook
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 is in Singapore for the last Sprint weekend of the season with track action starting this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
