George Russell found himself in an unexpected situation ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix when a crack in his power unit caused a water leak during the qualifying session, forcing the Mercedes driver to swap engines. The incident occurred at the tail end of Q3, when the team noticed a sudden drop in water pressure.
As a result, Russell will be fitting his fourth power unit of the 2026 season, but because the replacement is of the same specification and does not exceed the four‑engine limit, he will escape any grid penalty. Despite the setback, Russell’s qualifying performance was modest, securing seventh place on the grid. However, a three‑place grid penalty handed to the championship leader for a speeding infringement will promote Russell to sixth on the starting grid, placing him ahead of his teammate Kimi Antonelli. The water loss was traced back to a possible incident at Turn 4, where Russell ran over the exit kerb on his final lap of qualifying.
The impact appears to have opened a crack in the engine’s cooling system, leading to the leak. "We lost water pressure and I had a water leak. When I stopped on track, the car was leaking a load of water," Russell told Sky Sports F1. "Fingers crossed it doesn't affect anything for the race." He currently trails the championship leader by 50 points, a gap he hopes to narrow despite the technical hiccup.
Mercedes has been wrestling with reliability concerns this season, with both Russell and Antonelli experiencing engine‑related retirements. The Hungarian Grand Prix marks another chapter in that struggle. Earlier, at the Belgian round, Russell was left speechless after a software bug in the power unit curtailed straight‑line speed, ultimately contributing to a race‑ending collision with Lewis Hamilton at Spa‑Francorchamps.
The team has since patched the software issue for the Budapest weekend. Technical director Simone Resta explained that the software flaw was uniform across all Mercedes cars, but its impact was more pronounced on Russell’s car because Antonelli was running a fresher power unit.
"We also need to bear in mind that, when comparing their performance in the last few races, Kimi was on a fresher power unit, which is, of course, always a bit better than a quite used power unit," Resta said. He added that the balance between software, hardware age, and individual driver programmes makes the performance picture complex. The qualifying order, after penalties, placed Lando Norris (McLaren) on pole, followed by Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), Russell, Antonelli, Isack Hadjar (Red Bull), Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls), and Nico Hulkenberg (Audi). Even before the water leak, Russell had been lagging his teammate in pace throughout the European swing, a trend that continued into the Hungarian weekend.
Looking ahead to race day, Russell hopes to chip away at his 50‑point deficit but acknowledges the challenge of breaking into the podium battle. "We were probably even further on Friday but we had the strongest race pace, which tends to say it's not a car problem but a tyre problem," he remarked. He also noted the difficulty of finding the right compromise between a qualifying‑focused setup and a race‑friendly configuration. "Time will tell in the race if we struck the right balance between the qualifying setup and race setup.
We probably know we could make the car faster in qualifying trim at the expense of race performance. It's going to be difficult to overtake.
It would have been nice to be higher up," Russell added. The Hungarian Grand Prix schedule is packed, with support races including an F3 feature, a Porsche Supercup, and an F2 feature, leading up to the main event at 2 pm local time. The race will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event, with streaming available via NOW for subscribers.
In summary, Russell’s forced power‑unit change underscores the ongoing reliability issues Mercedes faces this season. While the engine swap does not incur a grid penalty, the team must ensure the new unit performs flawlessly under race conditions.
Russell’s ability to extract performance from a potentially older power unit, manage tyre wear, and navigate a competitive field will be crucial if he hopes to close the gap to the championship leader and secure valuable points in Budapest.