Hamilton heads into "the lion's den" with engine penalty in Turkey

Mercedes have confirmed they will introduce a new internal combustion engine (ICE) to Lewis Hamilton's car for the Turkish Grand Prix. The British driver receives a ten-place grid penalty which is seen as "the lesser of the two evils". 

Engine penalties 

An ICE change is worth a ten-place grid penalty. Any further component changes increase the penalty by five places. Talking to Sky Sports, former F1 driver Paul Di Resta highlights how Hamilton will be in the "lions den" by starting in the midfield. 

"There's a couple of ways of looking at it. You're in the lion's den. Lewis will be racing the likes of Alonso, Stroll, Vettel. On the first lap you can trip over each other, would you rather take more engine components and start at the back for an easy first lap. From there you can put a charge on, and race people one on one," Di Resta said. 

"They can always introduce things and take more of a hit. At the moment, the ICE is the only thing they want to change. Some will say, why not take the whole package? Why would you do that? This is where we will find out in Abu Dhabi when the flag drops on who made the right decision. You certainly can't count out another engine change at some point given the reliability of where Mercedes have been. They've got that engine in there today, to try and see how it will perform. Essentially they've bolted on old turbo and old parts to try and make it work," he added. 

Damage limitation 

In Russia, Hamilton's title rival Max Verstappen started from the back of the grid and limited the damage by finishing second. Pundit Ted Kravitz highlights how Mercedes have insisted they don't want a DNF but are trying to limit penalties. 

"This is the lesser of two evils. We've got 7 races to go, it should last until there. It might look like oh oh engine change, grid penalty, but this is actually the less risky option to take," he said.