Mercedes is comfortably Formula 1’s championship battle, but behind the scenes a different race is gathering speed – the search for the least painful place to swallow an engine penalty. Antonelli’s situation tightened at Spa, where Mercedes fitted a fourth internal combustion engine after concerns emerged over his Silverstone unit. One more ICE change would trigger a 10-place penalty, while replacing both the engine and exhaust would double the punishment. “There could be one that can be very special for Kimi, but on paper, [it] looks like it’s a good place to take an engine penalty. “So need to speak about whether we want to take an engine penalty in Monza.