George Russell loses his Formula 1 victory in Belgium. The stewards determine that his Mercedes was too light. How could this have happened?
George Russell was heartbroken after his surprise Formula 1 victory in Belgium was disqualified. “It breaks my heart to have been disqualified from today’s race. It was an incredible Grand Prix,” said the Englishman, who was able to feel like a three-time Grand Prix winner for at least around two hours after a brave one-stop strategy.
However, he was then disqualified because his car was underweight, and his teammate Lewis Hamilton moved up and was able to record his 105th career victory. After refueling during final inspection, Russell’s Silver Arrow with the number 63 weighed one and a half kilograms too little. The minimum weight of a Formula 1 car is 798 kilograms, but Russell’s car only weighed 796.5 kilograms.
“We will evaluate the events and understand what went wrong. Losing a one-two is frustrating and we can only apologise to George, who drove such a strong race,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff after the last Grand Prix before the summer break.
Was it due to rubber loss?
How could this have happened? Mercedes is still working on this. “We do not yet understand why the car was underweight after the race, but we will investigate thoroughly to find an explanation. We assume that the loss of rubber from just one stop played a role and we will work to understand how this happened. But we will not look for excuses,” explained chief engineer Andrew Shovlin.
The competition had opted for two stops and was completely outwitted by Russell in the final phase of the race. “That was unbelievable from Russell,” said Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, praising the 26-year-old tire whisperer.
“I feel sorry for George”
Mercedes already admitted at the hearing before the stewards that “it was a real mistake on the part of the team,” as the world motorsport association FIA announced. A possible appeal against the verdict is therefore off the table.
The main beneficiary of the disqualification was Hamilton, who had driven a confident race at the front except for Russell’s apparent coup. “I feel sorry for George and you don’t want to win a race by being disqualified, but we were back in the fight for victories in the last few races,” said the record world champion, looking forward to a little vacation.
Source: Stern

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