George Russell was forced to replace his power unit before the Hungarian Grand Prix after a crack in his engine caused a water leak during the qualifying session. The incident occurred at the tail end of Q3 when the Mercedes team detected a drop in water pressure, prompting engineers to swap out the unit. This will be Russell’s 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 avoids a grid‑penalty.
In qualifying, Russell managed only a seventh‑place time, which will be upgraded to a sixth‑place grid slot for the race because his teammate Kimi Antonelli received a three‑place penalty for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane. The water leak was traced back to a crack that likely appeared after Russell ran over the exit kerb at Turn 4 during his final Q3 lap, a run that did not improve his lap time. "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, adding, "Fingers crossed it doesn't affect anything for the race." Mercedes view the incident as part of a broader reliability trend that has plagued both of its drivers this season.
Both Russell and Antonelli have suffered points‑losses from engine‑related retirements, and Russell was left "speechless" after the previous round in Belgium when a software bug in the power‑unit curtailed his straight‑line speed and culminated in a race‑ending collision with Lewis Hamilton at Spa‑Francorchamps. The team has since rectified the software issue for the Hungarian weekend. Technical director Simone Resta explained that the software flaw was identical across all Mercedes cars, but it impacted Russell more severely because Antonelli was running on 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 quite a used power unit. That will change in the next races when we start to have a fresher power unit on George's side. So, there's a bit of everything.
There's a bit of software, but there's also Kimi being out of phase with George's programme. You sum up everything when you look at the final result," Resta said. The starting grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix places Russell one spot ahead of Antonelli, giving him a chance to chip away at the 50‑point gap that separates him from championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
However, Russell admitted that closing that deficit will be challenging. "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 explained. "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." The Hungarian Grand Prix schedule is packed, with supporting categories such as the F3 Feature Race, Porsche Supercup, and F2 Feature Race preceding the main event.
The race itself is slated for 2 pm local time, with pre‑race build‑up beginning at 12.30 pm, all broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event. Viewers can also stream the coverage via NOW without a long‑term contract. Overall, Russell’s situation highlights the fine line teams walk between performance and reliability.
While the power‑unit swap resolves the immediate water‑leak issue, the broader challenge remains: extracting maximum pace from a car that has shown both strong race‑pace potential and qualifying shortcomings, all while managing tyre wear and the ever‑present risk of further mechanical gremlins. The Hungarian GP will be a crucial test for Russell and Mercedes as they strive to close the points gap to Antonelli and re‑establish consistency heading into the latter part of the season.