Mercedes has confirmed that Valtteri Bottas will start at the back of the grid for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after taking on a new power unit.
Bottas was forced to retire from the previous race in Brazil after his engine shut down due to excessive oil consumption.
It was the first in-race failure for the Mercedes factory outfit over the course of the 2019 season.
The expired unit from Brazil was unable to be rescued, and the Finn's other power units have been deemed to have too high mileage to be put into the W10 for the season finale, which was the cause for the change.
"Obviously taking a brand new Power Unit means I’m going to be starting from the back of the grid," said Bottas.
"Knowing that already, we need to focus more for the race performance, race pace, whatever we can do with the car; also, we’re already thinking ahead with the strategy to see wat we can do to comeback from the back of the grid. I’m looking forward to it."
Mercedes engines have not been entirely bulletproof in 2019 after notable blowouts for Racing Point's Lance Stroll during practice at his home race in Canada, and for Williams' Robert Kubica during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The new power unit will be a 2019-spec unit and not an early 2020 version.
