In Monza, Mercedes drivers may receive penalties.

      The Mercedes team confidently leads in both classifications of the World Championship, with its drivers having secured 8 victories in the first eleven Grands Prix of the season; however, this does not mean that it is without challenges. There is no doubt about the effectiveness of the W17 chassis and the new power unit developed by specialists from High Performance Powertrains (HPP), but it is precisely in the area overseen by the engine builders from Brackley that reliability issues occasionally arise. These are primarily related to electrical components, the battery, and control electronics systems. It is enough to recall the retirements of George Russell in Montreal and Kimi Antonelli in Barcelona, but there were also less obvious malfunctions that caused problems for the drivers and the team. In Hungary, at the moment of the start, there was yet another failure in the power unit on Russell's car, and HPP engineers later acknowledged that it was also related to the incorrect functioning of the M17 E Performance engine systems. Technical expert Paolo Filizetti writes in Gazetta dello Sport that for about three months, Mercedes has been working on fixing the weak points of the power unit, giving priority attention to the battery. Currently, both drivers have already used three energy storage units, which are allocated to each participant in the championship for the entire season. Using a fourth, when HPP completes the upgraded version of the battery, will automatically result in a penalty in the form of lost starting positions. Testing of the new energy storage unit continues in Brackley, and the team clearly intends to try it out on a real track in the upcoming stages of the season. The most logical place to do this would be Monza: at the classic Italian racetrack, the starting position is not as crucial, as it is quite possible to make up for it, especially since Mercedes' speed allows for that. According to rumors, to level the chances of their drivers, the team may change the energy storage units on both cars, which means penalties threaten both Antonelli and Russell. However, it should also be noted that the Italian driver's car already has the fourth internal combustion engine (ICE), while his teammate only has the third so far. In Filizetti's opinion, it makes no sense for Mercedes to limit itself to just replacing one of the components of the power unit, i.e., the battery, and it is quite likely that the team will decide to install new ICEs as well. Moreover, the team is confident that Ferrari, their main competitor, plans to present an upgraded version of its power unit at the home Grand Prix in Italy. In the case of Scuderia, this will be a planned replacement, so penalties do not threaten Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. In any case, it makes sense for Mercedes to switch to improved energy storage units (likely in conjunction with other components of the power units) precisely in Monza, as there are races ahead on tracks where results directly depend on the power and efficiency of the engine.