Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
Russell's car found underweight, loses Spa win to Hamilton
George Russell has been disqualified from the results of the Belgian Grand Prix because his car was underweight, handing teammate Lewis Hamilton victory.
Russell originally won the race on an audacious one-stop strategy, beating Hamilton in a 1-2 finish, with Oscar Piastri third. However, the FIA found Russell’s car to be 1.5 kg underweight when it was weighed after the race, and Mercedes acknowledged it had no mitigating factor that could explain the discrepancy.
“After the race, car No. 63 was weighed and its weight was 798.0 kg, which is the minimum weight required by Technical Regulations Article 4.1,” a report from the FIA’s technical delegate read. “After this, fuel was drained out of the car and 2.8 liters of fuel were removed.
“The car was not fully drained according to the draining procedure submitted by the team in their legality documents as TR Article 6.5.2 is fulfilled. The car was weighed again on the FIA inside and outside scales and the weight was 796.5 kg. The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor.”
After a brief hearing with the stewards, the penalty was confirmed just over two hours after the end of the race.
“During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly,” the stewards’ decision read. “The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.
“The Stewards determine that Article 4.1 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations has been breached and therefore the standard penalty for such an infringement needs to be applied.”
Russell’s one-stop strategy saw him complete 34 laps on his final set of tires and, prior to the disqualification being confirmed, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted it could have led to more rubber being used that reduced the weight of the car.
“I think it’s a one-stop that…you expect loss of rubber, maybe more, but it’s no excuse,” Wolff said. “If the stewards deem it to be a breach of regulations, then it is what it is, and we have to learn from that. As a team, given there are more positives to take for George, that’s a massive blow for a driver when his childhood dream is to win these races, then to be told it’s taken away, but he's going to win many more.”
The disqualification moves all drivers up one place in the classification, with Hamilton now the winner ahead of Piastri, with Charles Leclerc promoted to third place and a podium position.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
Read Chris Medland's articles
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.