(Motorsport news) With only two points separating Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, the title race is heating up with every race and is about to get even more interesting. Mercedes have hinted at the possibility of a possible engine penalty for Hamilton at the Turkish GP as they look to replace their third engine of the season (the maximum permitted) to ensure reliability with seven races still remaining for the season.

Title rivals Red Bull and Max Verstappen were in a similar situation at the Russian GP and looked to make the best out of a bad situation as their Dutch racing driver had incurred a three place grid penalty after his collision with Hamilton at Monza. Team Principal of Red Bull Racing Christian Horner along with others in the Red Bull team used that opportunity to replace the engine which meant that Verstappen started at the back of the grid at 20th but still finished in second place behind Lewis Hamilton. This meant that Red Bull’s strategy of damage control paid dividends as only two points separate the two drivers as Formula 1 heads to Istanbul Park.

Speaking about the possibility of an engine change, Toto Wolff said “It's a possibility, when, and how, is not yet decided. Most important is that you don't DNF because of a reliability issue, you can cope with swings, whether you finish second, third, I think that is OK, the championship is going to go long, but if you don't finish…so we are looking at the parameters of the engines, making sure we don't suffer from any reliability problems. Lewis has been tremendous there, but we have to take each race at a time. It's so difficult, the cars are so close. I'm curious to see how this championship evolves."

The Turkish GP is expected to be a wet race, similar to last year in which Hamilton clinched his seventh World Championship. The British racing driver is looking for a record eighth title which will put him ahead of the legendary Michael Schumacher but Max Verstappen stands in his way in the closest title race that we have seen in years. Hamilton has admitted that Mercedes has not taken advantage to move clear of title rivals Red Bull and Verstappen, particularly at Monza and Sochi. He said “It's not only the two races, there's been plenty of races where we've not maximised, as a team, collectively, both drivers and everyone but we're still in a fight and we can continue to improve.

"There are definitely things that we will try and do better moving forwards but we just won't give up, we'll just keep trying, keep pushing, remain hopeful and just do the work. Well, undoubtedly it's going to be tough,  think, for two thirds of the season so far they've had the edge. However, it's obviously been difficult with all sorts of things, curve balls sent to both of us and our teams. There's still everything to play for in these next races. I think they've got a good set of circuits coming up and I anticipate or just continue to be really close between us. Just got to be hopeful of some good races."

With the remaining tracks expected to favor Red Bull, it will perhaps be in Mercedes’ best interests to incur the engine penalty at the Turkish Grand Prix. It’s also important to note that this year has a 22 race schedule, the longest in Formula 1 history with no increase in components allowance compared to previous seasons. Hamilton switched to his 3rd and final penalty free engine at the Belgian Grand Prix and lost one of his older engines at a practice session during the Dutch Grand Prix, which means that if Mercedes are serious about a title charge, it is likely that a fourth engine is on the cards.

However, with Hamilton having done well at the Turkish Grand Prix last season, Toto Wolff might opt for a different race to incur an engine penalty where Mercedes would be at a disadvantage anyway, a strategy that was also employed by Red Bull during the Russian Grand Prix. According to F1 regulations, each team can have 3 internal combustion engines, 3 MGU-H, 3 MGU-K, 3 turbo-chargers, 2 energy stores and 2 control electronics. As things stand, Hamilton is the only racing driver compared to Verstappen, Bottas and Perez who has stayed within the component limit but that may change at the Turkish Grand Prix.

The Turkish Grand Prix will be held on Sunday, 10th October from 5:30 pm IST.

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