The question marks hanging over Verstappen F1 engine penalty decision

The current world championship leader is set to face a grid penalty before the end of the season with Red Bull needing to introduce a fourth power unit into his pool after his second Honda engine was damaged in his massive crash at the British Grand Prix following a clash with title rival Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull has so far held off exceeding Verstappen's power unit allocation for 2021 but this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix at Sochi has been earmarked as a potential venue to make the change and take the subsequent grid drop.

Verstappen, who holds a five-point lead in the world championship, confirmed in Thursday’s press conferences that Red Bull will consider a number of factors before it makes a final decision.

“To be honest, there are a lot of question marks from our side,” Verstappen said.

“So I think we have to wait and see a little bit what is happening and how competitive we are as well. Nothing has been fully decided yet.”

The weather may also complicate Red Bull’s decision with rain threatening to affect proceedings throughout the weekend in Russia.

“This is, of course, what we have to take in consideration,” Verstappen added.

“But I also think in general we just have to wait and see how competitive we are. That’s why I don’t know at the moment what we are going to do.”

Verstappen will discuss the situation with senior Red Bull figures and his engineers before making a final call over what he described as being a “global” decision.

“Everyone needs to, of course, agree to it,” he explained. “But of course, I can also have my opinion about it.”

Valtteri Bottas started the Italian Grand Prix from the back of the grid after moving onto his fourth power unit of the season but Mercedes boss Toto Wolff stressed in Monza it is “not an absolute must” that Hamilton will need to follow suit.

“As far as I’m aware right now, I think we are okay,” Hamilton said on Thursday in Sochi. “However, there is a long way to go.

“At the moment we have no plans to put in a new engine. I hope that stays the same, but obviously I can’t predict the future.”

If Verstappen does end up starting from the back of the grid, Red Bull’s hopes of taking the fight to Mercedes will rest with Sergio Perez.

Mercedes is undefeated at Sochi since it joined the F1 calendar in 2014 but Perez says Red Bull’s performance at Monza - one of Mercedes’ strongest circuits - has given them confidence about their prospects in Russia.

“In Monza we were a lot closer than we expected to be,” he said. “So I think coming here we have high hopes to be really close to them and hopefully we are able to be in front of them.”

“We had a couple of bad races in a row, so it was important to get that strong performance. Unfortunately, we lost the podium with the penalty, but we did it on track, in a track that is not really suitable for us. So in that regard, I am very pleased with it.”

The Mexican has not stood on the podium since finishing third at the French Grand Prix in June but believes he can be in the mix at a circuit he has enjoyed strong results at in the past, including a third-place for Force India in 2015.

“It’s a track that I like, I enjoy, but it also suits my driving, especially come Sunday in the race,” Perez added.

“It’s a track where degradation on tyres is small but it’s very hard on the rear tyres. So I think that’s something that has served me well in the past and has given me that opportunity to have good results in this place.”