George Russell says he still considers his Belgian Grand Prix as a “win” in his mind despite being disqualified after his car was found to be underweight.
The Mercedes driver took the chequered flag first in the last race before the summer break at Spa-Francorchamps, just ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.Russell was the only leading driver to attempt a one-stop strategy in the race and successfully held off Hamilton in the final laps to claim victory. However, after the podium ceremony, Russell was disqualified from the final race results after his car was found to be 1.5 kilograms under the minimum weight of 798kg.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, Russell admitted Mercedes had underestimated how much weight both the car and he would lose over the course of the race distance.
“Clearly we didn’t do a good enough job, but it was just a number of factors all coming together where we, sort of exceeded our expectation of how much weight we would lose,” he said.
“Including myself – I lost a bit more weight during the race than we thought. The tyres lost a lot more than we expected. The plank was wearing more than we thought, as well. It’s just these three or four factors all coming together that just pushed us over the edge.”
Despite having lost a victory from being underweight, Russell insists Mercedes do not need to suddenly become more conservative in their approach to racing in the future.
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“I’ve been pushing the team for a long time to keep pushing the boundaries,” he said. “If you take margin in everything you do, you’d never be disqualified. You’d never make a mistake while driving. You’d never spin off. But you’d never know what the true potential is.
“Of course, it’s very frustrating that the one time in three years we’ve been just under the weight limit was the race we won. But there’s zero hard feelings because we’re in this together and it will make us stronger for the future.”
Russell says that the lessons learned from Spa will ensure that any similar situation does not occur again in future.
“The processes weren’t quite in place to cover all the different scenarios,” he explained.
“I knew before the race I was a little bit light, but it was too late to make a substantial change without eating a steak or something – which was probably not the best pre-race routine. There are things that now, with the benefit of hindsight, we can do better and we will be doing better moving forward. And as always, you need to make a mistake first until you recognise there’s a problem.”
Despite losing what would have been the third victory of his career, Russell says he will always value his performance in the race alongside his two previous F1 wins.
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“That race, I lost 25 points, but in my mind, that is still a win,” he said.
“I’ve kept my helmet and it’s going to be on my bedside table with my other two victories. Those celebrations I had with the team in that moment, straight after, were some of the best feelings of my career. So I’ll only take positives from what happened.”
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2024 Belgian Grand Prix
- Belgian GP was “still a win” for Russell despite disqualification
- High plank wear also a factor in Russell’s disqualification, say Mercedes
- Russell is sixth F1 driver to be disqualified after winning a grand prix
- Unheard radio shows why Hamilton missed Russell’s (almost) race-winning strategy
- 2024 Belgian Grand Prix weekend F1 driver ratings
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd August 2024, 15:03
Well, he should’ve ate a steak in hindsight.
SteveP
22nd August 2024, 15:15
Or declaring it to the team and getting them to add some kind of ballast under FIA supervision.
Anyway, it seems I was correct with my speculation that George was lighter when he got in the car on Sunday than he was when he got out of it at the end of Q3 Saturday.
What I was not expecting was that he knew he was light before the race.
I don’t know how he can square that knowledge with the concept that he won. He trimmed one item too many, and the consequences bit.
SteveP
22nd August 2024, 15:25
Plus – 1.5 kg (53 oz) steak, cooked weight, is one hell of a meal.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
22nd August 2024, 18:06
He’d be up on a stage in the middle of the restaurant eating that, and would have got it free if he’d finished it.
amped
22nd August 2024, 16:38
He wasn’t underweight, the car was. Something Mercedes knew and tried to hide by putting more fuel in.
Didn’t Mercedes say that both cars were virtually equal weight at the start? Seems like Merc are trying to find an excuse instead of admitting fault.
The teams don’t put a drop more fuel in than necessary, so for there to be an excess smells fishy. It’s a highly controlled process that factors in temperature & density of the fuel not just a guy with a jerry can.
SteveP
22nd August 2024, 17:42
Tosh. The FIA standard is to take a “dry” weight, but as you notice, they take a wet weight first.
The reference to fuel in the report is indicating that they did a wet weight, because the required fuel remnant from which the FIA take a 1 litre sample had not been removed but since the wet weight was exactly what the dry weight should have been they reweighed when the fuel sample and other fuel had been removed.
Both were within 500g of each other. That was the statement.
Both cars + driver were weighed as per requirements after Q3, both were above the minimum dry weight.
Unless you can account for some magic weight loss system that makes the car lighter, there is only one source of weight loss other than tyre wear – the driver.
Russell says “I knew before the race I was a little bit light,…”
Note before the race. Cock-up or deliberate, I think that one is on him, not the team. I do think Merc will make sure to weigh the drivers on the day of the race now.
amped
23rd August 2024, 12:37
The mass of the car was below the minimum allowed, George’s weight is irrelevant in the discussion as if he did indeed lose weight the team should have increased the ballast in the car. It is the team’s responsibility to ensure the car is compliant.
I maybe could have worded it better. I know what the process was and wasn’t refuting it. I was referring to Mercedes leaving (and adding at the start of the race) extra fuel in the tank above the required amount. Otherwise why would they have done it?
I’m not claiming the car ‘lost weight’. The weight was never there to begin with. They put more fuel in to disguise it. Wolff’s actions at the end of the race show that it was known the car was not compliant with the weight regulations. This claim of George being underweight is just an attempt to excuse the failure IMO. It is something that can be factored for.
SteveP
23rd August 2024, 13:18
Because, as the scrutineers noted in the report, there is a requirement to provide a fuel sample and that had not yet been done at the time of the “wet” weighing. However, since the wet weight was exactly on the minimum weight for car + driver they expected a lower “dry” weight, and when the fuel sample had been taken and the tank fully drained this proved to be so. The car + driver weight was non-compliant.
The report never looks at the question of why it was under weight, simply reporting that it was.
Russell asked for tighter margins – he got that.
Russell knew he was “light before the race” and didn’t report it to the team.
Russell asked for the one-stop and confirmed it when questioned by the team, presumably because someone in the performance side pointed out how close the car would be to the legal limit, and Russells input to point 2 comes to the fore here. If they knew about point 2, I think they would have insisted on a second stop.
He would have known that very quickly after the wet weight was known.
Bear in mind, this for Mercedes F1, is not about Russell “losing” 25 points, it’s about the team losing 8 or more that Russell had in the bag even after a second stop.
On a second stop Russell might have bagged the fastest lap – if Perez could then it wasn’t that difficult.
Yes, he “loses” the opportunity to cross the line first, but the team still have a good points haul.
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
22nd August 2024, 15:22
He’s probably got an impressive imaginary trophy case for all the races and podiums he’s won in his mind.
Joe Seph
22nd August 2024, 15:27
stupid detail… but I remember George jumping to the mechanics after getting out of the car and his sweat spraying all around… not a kilo of it, but… I thought his weight could be one of the factors. Are post race numbers public?
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd August 2024, 15:39
No, driver weights are not public Joe Seph.
grat
22nd August 2024, 15:54
The driver’s weight is also considered separately from the car. So even if George had lost 4kg of water weight, it wouldn’t matter for the purposes of the disqualification.
SteveP
22nd August 2024, 17:55
If you read the regulations, it is the combined weight of driver and car they check. That’s the reason for this in the sporting regs:
35.2 After the sprint session or the race any classified car may be weighed. If a driver wishes to leave his car before it is weighed, he must ask the Technical Delegate to weigh him in order that this weight may be added to that of the car.
There is a minimum mass requirement for the driver+seat+ballast:
4.6.2 The reference mass of the driver will be added to the mass of any ballast designated for this purpose and at no time during the Competition, may this be less than 80kg
amped
22nd August 2024, 16:39
The car was underweight, not George.
SteveP
22nd August 2024, 18:00
The car and driver were weighed after Q3 and were compliant. The car and driver were weighed again after the race and were non-compliant.
George: “I knew before the race I was a little bit light,”
I will be charitable and put it down to him being ‘not a strong thinker’ rather than a deliberate avoidance.
MacLeod (@macleod)
23rd August 2024, 8:02
Problem is before they drive to the starting grid they are weighted (the drivers) so if George was lighter then before they would add balast on the grid.
So why did they not add weight then because George was within correct weight. Or they forgot balast or lost it or fueled just 2-3kg less.
That George takes it for the team so then we can’t say anything.
SteveP
23rd August 2024, 18:32
Under which regulation does that occur?
amped
23rd August 2024, 12:51
If George’s weight had dropped, the ballast in the car should have been increased to offset it and ensure the car. Therefore the car was underweight. George can take the blame for the team if he wants, but that doesn’t stop the team being at fault.
It wasn’t a particurlaly hot or tough race, he won’t have sweat excessively to lose more than normal. Mercedes just though they could fudge it and got caught out. They knowingly entered an underweight car and tried to hide it by having more fuel in the car. The celebrations were muted at the end because they knew it wouldn’t stand scrutineering.
SteveP
23rd August 2024, 13:27
Exactly my point, but he doesn’t seem to have told them that he “was a bit light before the race”
Let’s be honest here, if we weigh ourselves each day a few hundred grams doesn’t really merit notice, but a kilo does. That’s the likely variance he noted as being “a bit light”
amped
23rd August 2024, 12:51
If George’s weight had dropped, the ballast in the car should have been increased to offset it and ensure the car. Therefore the car was underweight. George can take the blame for the team if he wants, but that doesn’t stop the team being at fault.
It wasn’t a particurlaly hot or tough race, he won’t have sweat excessively to lose more than normal. Mercedes just though they could fudge it and got caught out. They knowingly entered an underweight car and tried to hide it by having more fuel in the car. The celebrations were muted at the end because they knew it wouldn’t stand scrutineering.
AlanD
23rd August 2024, 15:02
Joe: “Are post race numbers public?”
Not the pre or post race numbers, (drivers are weighed both before and after races). Interestingly, when you look at the info the teams give for driver’s weights, i.e. their day to day typicl weight, Russell is 70 Kg, and Hamilton, who is 11cm shorter, is 73kg. All the drivers have to be ballasted so that they meet the minmum weight requirement both before and after the race.
amped
22nd August 2024, 16:29
It was still a win, one that George seemed to engineer for himself rather than the team coming up with it.
It worked well and he managed it well, even with a 1 stopper he had enough life left in his tyres to hold off Hamilton & Piastri. It could have gone wrong though, he could have ran out of tyre life & ended up finishing well down the order.
It’s just a shame Mercedes’ sent him out in an underweight car they tried to hide by putting more fuel than needed in the car, this cost him a masterstroke win.
Any notion that the weight issues were due to liquid loss from George or tyre weat are nonsense. The car was underweight not George, and Pirelli tyres don’t lose that much mass from being used, especially tyres in good enough shape to allow a driver to defend as George did.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd August 2024, 16:59
Yes, I also consider it a win, just based on the fact he didn’t gain enough time per lap to make a difference in terms of keeping hamilton behind, the advantage he would’ve gained from that weight was minimal.
Ben
22nd August 2024, 18:40
Well you’re both wrong. He didn’t win. Hamilton did.
Nick T.
22nd August 2024, 19:38
Guys, Ben takes all Lewis accolades incredibly seriously as well as diminishing his teammates and rivals.
N
22nd August 2024, 21:57
I wonder how many of the people claiming Russell won, where also shouting ‘rules are rules’ when Hamiltons wing was less than a single millimetre out in Brazil 2021, losing his pole, and got sent to the back of the grid.
Curious.
SteveP
23rd August 2024, 13:37
@N
Well, I’m not claiming he won (he didn’t, he finished with a non-legal car) but I also shrugged on the assembly cock-up that caused one side (only one side) of the rear wing to flex more than it should.
General reckoning was that the imbalance of the flexure would have been detrimental to the performance – but rules are rules.
In the same season, I questioned why RBR were allowed to repeatedly change rear wing elements that spent so much time flexing like a bee’s wing, they cracked.
That was allowed in Parc Ferme conditions, but changing the assembly to put the component the right way round on Lewis’s car was not.
The minds of the FIA are not easy to comprehend
amped
23rd August 2024, 12:59
Ben, George won. He passed the Chequered Flag in 1st position. Lewis was gifted the win only because George was disqualified.
N, George won the race just as Lewis qualified 1st, but due to non-compliance they were disqualified from the sessions.
AlanD
23rd August 2024, 14:22
Amped: “George won. He passed the Chequered Flag in 1st position. Lewis was gifted the win only because George was disqualified.”
Getting to the cheuered flag first is not the same as winning. Imagine if a driver got to the chequered flag by blatantly cutting the final chichance and overtaking three cars in the process. It doesn’t matter how skillful a move it might be, it still isn’t legal and therefore he never won the race, and the real winner is not “gifted” the win, he has earned it whether you like it or not.
Ajaxn
22nd August 2024, 23:11
He kept Hamilton behind because he had the superior downforce in those high-speed corners. The reason for the superior downforce was with the greater tire wear leading to him being much lower to the ground. In other words, better ground effect played its part.
This says a lot for the improved chassis and the potential that is there if they can do it legitimately.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
23rd August 2024, 8:03
Mercedes should never do more than their one mandatory tyre stop if they can simply gain downforce by letting the tyres wear. Strange that they’ve never figured it out!
AlanD
23rd August 2024, 1:42
Esplatore, but he gained 20 seconds or so by skipping a pit stop, and if that strategy led to excessive tyre wear resulting in the car being underweight, then that is relevant, much more relevant that the small gain per lap. The bottom line is that if the car was illegal, (and no-one is displuting that) then he didn’t beat anyone.
Edvaldo
22nd August 2024, 17:33
If what caused the car to be underweight was the strategy, due to loss of weight on the tyres as it has been said, he can be satisfied to come out with a clever way to boost his result mid-race, as even if Hamilton and Piastri had gotten past him, 3rd would be better than what he had before the change of plans.
SteveP
22nd August 2024, 18:07
There are people who have a “clever” way of ‘passing’ exams. There’s a name for it.
Sorry, but competing with a non-legal weight driver+car package isn’t anything other than a justified DQ.
I’m a Merc fan, and I think he has let them down. He should have told the engineers that he had lost weight and things might be marginal.
AlanD
23rd August 2024, 1:47
Steve, if you look at the details, Russel’s weight wasn’t the issue. The drivers have to meet a certain weight requireent, which he did. It was the car which came in underweight, not the driver. If Russell had wolfed down a fat steak before the race, they’d have just removed the corresponding amount of driver ballast.
SteveP
23rd August 2024, 8:11
The main detail to note is that both cars were legal at the end of Q3, unless the 1.5kg can be explained by rubber loss there is no weight loss factor for the car.
However, as Russell said himself – he “was light before the race”
He started light and was always marginal, at best, on total package weight – which does include the 80kg reference mass for a driver.
Anyway you look at it, he asked for fine margins and then over marginalised his weight – his mistake, his DQ
AlanD
23rd August 2024, 14:48
SteveP “The main detail to note is that both cars were legal at the end of Q3, unless the 1.5kg can be explained by rubber loss there is no weight loss factor for the car.”
Since all cars are legal at the end of every Q3, wouldn’t your argument apply every time a car is discovered to be underweight at the end of any race? As well as the tyre wear, there is brake wear, plank wear, skid plate wear, and possibly other things like oil or fluids which are not normally expected to leak and included in the “dry” weight of the car. I suspect that the extra tyre wear was lowering the car, grinding away more of the titanium skid plates, and more of the plank. The plank remained legal, but there was still more plank wear than anticipated.
SteveP “However, as Russell said himself – he “was light before the race””
All drivers have to be weighed both before and after races. It isn’t optional. This is not just to ensure legality, but as part of the driver health monitoring programme, so the idea that Russell knew he was “a bit light” but no-one else did just sounds implausible to me. All the official reports say it was the car which was underweight at the end of the race, not the driver.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
22nd August 2024, 21:48
Not only did he not win, he was 20 seconds off the pace. To actually win he would have needed to pit like everyone else and get heavier tires.
AlanD
23rd August 2024, 1:47
Exactly!
Flying Lap
23rd August 2024, 5:37
100% correct.
AlanD
23rd August 2024, 1:56
Russell said: “The plank was wearing more than we thought, as well.”
The excess tyre wear probably meant the car was running a little lower towards the end of the race, maybe only a millimeter, but still enough to plane off a chunk of plank.
Russell also said “But there’s zero hard feelings because we’re in this together”
Zero hard feelings implies he thinks he is entitled to have hard feelings but is being magnanimous by not pointing the finger of blame, conveniently overlooking the fact that straight after the race it was supposedly his own genius call to one-stop, not the team.
SteveP
23rd August 2024, 8:22
I agree with that 100%
Summary: My brilliant idea, their mistake.
DaveW (@dmw)
23rd August 2024, 14:43
He “won” because the team didn’t make Hamilton aware that if he pit then Russell would not pit. 2012 Hamilton would have crucified the team in public for that with some cause. Now we have zen Hamilton. Russell should also thank Hamilton’s therapist in defeat.