Max Verstappen could be set to serve a grid penalty at this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix in a fresh blow to the Red Bull driver’s F1 2024 title hopes.

It comes after the reigning World Champion was plagued by engine-related concerns over the Mexican Grand Prix weekend.

Max Verstappen facing grid penalty at Brazilian Grand Prix

Verstappen‘s running was heavily restricted on Friday in Mexico City, with Red Bull opting to change his engine ahead of final practice on Saturday due to an “intake air circuit leakage which could not be thoroughly resolved.”

Verstappen switched to another engine in his existing power unit pool, ensuring he avoided a grid penalty at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

However, the older engine left Verstappen with a significant power shortfall with FIA speed trap figures revealing the World Champion to be 2kph slower than team-mate Sergio Perez alone before the DRS zone on the main straight in Mexico.

Verstappen was heard complaining about the performance of his engine as he came under attack from eventual race winner Carlos Sainz while leading in the early laps of the race.

The Dutchman went on to finish a distant sixth, his joint-lowest classified result of the season, after incurring two separate 10-second time penalties for incidents with McLaren driver and F1 2024 title rival Lando Norris.

Norris ultimately finished second, taking 10 points out of Verstappen’s lead to reduce the gap between them to 47 points ahead of the final four races of the season.

Verstappen has continued to hold a healthy lead over Norris despite failing to win a race since the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23, a run of 10 races his longest barren streak since the 2020 season.

Speaking to Austrian outlet ORF, Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko has hinted that Verstappen is likely to take an engine penalty in Brazil, where a grid drop is considered less “severe” due to the overtaking-friendly nature of the Interlagos circuit.

Marko said: “The engine we had in there [for the Mexican GP] was no longer intended for the race. And the older an engine gets, the more its performance diminishes.

“The penalty would be five places. That wouldn’t be so severe in Brazil, for example, where you can overtake relatively easily.

“But we saw that we were missing 3-8kmh on the straights.”

The news of Verstappen’s likely penalty is likely to come as a major boost to Norris, who produced one of his strongest performances of last season in Brazil where he set pole position for the sprint and finished within 10 seconds of Verstappen’s dominant Red Bull RB19 in both the sprint and main races.

It is uncertain whether Norris himself will be required to serve an engine penalty before the F1 2024 season is out, with the McLaren man among a number of drivers at the limit of their permitted powertrain component usage limits.

Verstappen previously served an engine penalty at July’s Belgian Grand Prix, where he dropped 10 places on the grid after setting pole position.

Despite starting 11th, the Dutchman managed to recover to fourth place at Spa – just 8.7 seconds behind the race-winning Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and a place ahead of Norris, who started fourth.

Hamilton famously overcame an engine penalty to win the Brazilian Grand Prix while battling Verstappen for the title in F1 2021, when he memorably went from last to first under the original sprint race format, which saw the result of the mini race set the grid for Sunday’s grand prix.

The Mercedes driver was disqualified after setting pole position for the sprint race at Interlagos due to a technical infringement related to the DRS system on his rear wing.

Hamilton recovered from 20th on the grid to fifth in the sprint race, before dropping five places to 10th on the grid for Sunday’s main race as a result of an engine change.

He went on to prevail in an ill-tempered battle with Verstappen in Sao Paulo, who would go on to secure his maiden World Championship in the highly controversial season finale in Abu Dhabi four weeks later.

Under the rules of the current sprint format, if confirmed Verstappen’s grid penalty in Brazil will only apply to Sunday’s main race with his sprint race prospects unaffected.