Grid Penalties Shake Up Sao Paulo Grand Prix

The Sao Paulo Grand Prix grid is being ripped up before the cars have even rolled out.

Max Verstappen will start from the very back after Red Bull opted to give the championship leader a completely new engine, having uncovered problems following Friday practice. It’s a bold reset, but one they judged safer than gambling on a fragile power unit around Interlagos.

He is not alone in taking a hit.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will each serve 10-place grid penalties, while Mercedes driver George Russell drops five spots. All four have breached Formula 1’s tightly controlled engine component limits.

Hamilton, Leclerc and Russell have each fitted new internal combustion engines. For the Ferrari pair, this is the first time they have gone beyond the season’s allocation of four engines, which triggers a heavier sanction than Russell’s latest change. The Briton had already exceeded his allowance earlier in the year, so this extra unit adds a smaller, five-place drop.

The result is a jumbled, volatile-looking grid for Sunday, with some of the sport’s sharpest elbows now scattered through the pack rather than lined up at the front.

Verstappen, of course, knows this script well. He famously won the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix from 17th on the grid after an engine penalty in a wet, chaotic race, slicing through the field in conditions that punished the slightest mistake.

This time he starts even deeper in trouble, from the very back. Different year, same question: how far can he fight his way through Interlagos again?