George Russell was disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix due to his car being underweight, allowing Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to win the final Formula One race before the summer break on Sunday.
A stewards’ document said Mercedes “accepted there were no extenuating circumstances and that it was a genuine mistake by the team.”
This is the first disqualification on the grid since the 2023 United States Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc and Hamilton were disqualified This was because some of the skid plates on both vehicles were too thin.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said in a statement that the team had “no choice but to accept” the disqualification.
“We obviously made a mistake and we need to learn from it,” he said. “We’ll go away, assess what happened and understand what went wrong. It’s frustrating to lose the one-two and I can only apologise to George for a strong race. Lewis is rightfully promoted to first place, he was the quickest with two stops and is a deserving winner.”
“Despite the disqualification, there are many positives to take from this weekend. We had a benchmark car with two different strategies in today’s race – something that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. We go into the summer break having won three of the last four races, and we’ll be rejuvenated after the shutdown and looking to return looking to maintain our positive trajectory.”
Digging into the details
FIA Formula One Technical Delegate Joe Bauer, in his report after the Belgian Grand Prix, said that when Russell’s car was first weighed, it was within the minimum weight limit (798 kg, 1,759.29 lbs), but this was before the fuel was drained from the car. Article 4.1 of the technical regulations states, in part, that “The weight of the car without fuel shall not be less than 798 kg at any time during the competition.”
Competitors must ensure that at least one litre of fuel is available to be sampled from their car, as per Article 6.5.2. The FIA drained 2.8 litres of fuel from his car to meet this requirement, but Bauer’s report states that “the car was not fully drained in accordance with the emissions procedures submitted by the team in its legality document, so Article TR 6.5.2 is met.”
Russell’s car was “re-weighed on the FIA inside and outside weighing scales and weighed 796.5 kg”, or 1,755.98 pounds. His car was ultimately found to be 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) under the weight limit set by Article 4.1 (798 kg), no small amount. Bauer wrote that “the calibration of the outside and inside weighing scales was checked and witnessed by the competitors.”
Wolff held his customary post-race press conference shortly after Bauer reported the situation to the stewards, but said he would not comment on the matter at the time. Asked if there was any damage to the car that affected its weight, Wolff replied:
“No, one stop means less tyres, but it’s no excuse,” he said. “If the stewards decide it’s against the rules, then there’s no way around it. We have to learn from it and as a team, there are better things to be gained for George, but for a driver whose childhood dream was to win these races, it’s a big blow to be told that dream has been taken away. But he’s going to keep winning.”
Russell’s final stint was over 30 laps on the hard tyre, whereas other drivers, including Hamilton, ran a two-stop race, and, given the length of the circuit, there was no cool-down lap after the Belgian Grand Prix, when drivers would normally change tyres to make up for the loss of weight.
However, this is just one of many possibilities that could have contributed to why the car was so light.
— Luke Smith contributed to this article.
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(Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
