Lindblad set to start from the back as Hadjar and Colapinto take engine grid penalties at Sepang

Isack Hadjar, Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto are all set to take grid penalties at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia this weekend after exceeding their allocation of power unit components — with Racing Bulls rookie Lindblad due to start from the very back of the field at Sepang.

How the penalties stack up

Red Bull's Hadjar, who celebrated a podium last time out in Baku on his comeback from injury, will take a seventh internal combustion engine (ICE) of the four permitted throughout the 2026 season. Because he has already gone beyond the limit with every power unit element this year, the latest change costs him a five-place grid drop rather than a heavier sanction.

Lindblad's breach is heavier still. The Racing Bulls rookie has taken a fifth ICE of the four allowed, along with a fifth turbocharger and a fifth new exhaust set, and the resulting cumulative drop is set to send him to the rear of the grid for Sunday's race.

Alpine's Colapinto is due to be hit with an additional 10-place penalty for taking a fifth ICE of the season — landing on top of the five-place grid drop he already carries following his collision with team-mate Pierre Gasly and McLaren's Lando Norris in Azerbaijan — leaving the Argentinian set to fall 15 places in total.

The rules behind the drops

As per the regulations, the first time the allocation of any power unit element is exceeded, a 10-place grid penalty is applied, with the second time — and every overage thereafter — costing five places. All penalties incurred at the same event are applied cumulatively, and any driver whose combined penalty exceeds 15 grid places is required to start the race from the back of the field regardless.

That framework explains three very different outcomes this weekend: Lindblad's stack of component changes blows past the 15-place threshold and consigns him to the back, Hadjar's latest overage is charged at five places, and Colapinto's 10-place engine penalty stacks on his existing five-place drop to leave him 15 spots worse off.

Fresh setback after Hadjar's injury comeback

The penalty arrives at an awkward moment for Hadjar after a disrupted stretch of the season. The Red Bull driver missed the Dutch Grand Prix through a wrist injury, with Liam Lawson stepping in for Zandvoort — scoring points on debut in seventh before adding more in Madrid — ahead of Hadjar's return in Baku, where he beat Max Verstappen in qualifying before finishing behind the Dutchman for his second podium of the campaign.

According to F1.com's end-of-September team-mate head-to-head rundown, Verstappen led Hadjar 163 points to 86 in the 2026 drivers' championship, with the pair sixth and eighth respectively.

Colapinto's weekend, meanwhile, has unravelled since Baku, where his collision with Gasly and Norris triggered the five-place drop now being compounded by an engine change.

Verstappen on top as F1 returns to Sepang

The grid drops land on a landmark weekend for the sport, with Formula 1 back at Sepang. In Friday's opening practice, Max Verstappen set the pace, with Hadjar third for Red Bull, Charles Leclerc fourth in the Ferrari, championship leader Kimi Antonelli fifth and Lewis Hamilton sixth. Pierre Gasly placed seventh, ahead of Liam Lawson and Lindblad, while McLaren — tipped by the Mercedes camp as a leading contender for the weekend — sat outside the top 10.

In the Mercedes camp there was caution against drawing firm conclusions from the session — "It's early days," came the verdict, with the team showing high degradation while "everyone is out of the [set-up] window now".

Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia gets underway at 16:00 local time on Saturday, with lights out at Sepang scheduled for 15:00 on Sunday.