George Russell was disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix because his car was underweight, making Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton the winner of the final Formula One race ahead of the summer break Sunday.
According to the stewards’ document, Mercedes “also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.”
This is the first disqualification the grid has seen since the 2023 U.S. Grand Prix, when Charles Leclerc and Hamilton were disqualified because an area of the skid planks on both cars was too thin.
Jo Bauer, the FIA Formula One technical delegate, said in his report following the Belgian GP that when Russell’s car was initially weighed, it came in at the minimum weight limit (798 kg, which is 1,759.29 pounds). The FIA drained 2.8 liters of fuel from his car and it “was weighed again on the FIA inside and outside scales and the weight was 796.5 kg,” which is 1,755.98 pounds.
Russell’s car ultimately was found to be 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) underweight, which isn’t a small amount. Bauer wrote, “The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff held his usual post-race media session shortly after Bauer referred the situation to the stewards. Wolff said he wouldn’t comment on the matter at that time because the stewards hadn’t issued the verdict. He was asked whether anything was damaged on the car that could’ve impacted the weight.
“No, I think it’s a one-stop that … you expect loss of rubber, maybe more, but it’s no excuse,” he said. “If, if the stewards deem it to be a breach of regulations, then it is what it is, and we have to learn from that, and as a team, given there are more positives to take, for George, but that’s a massive blow for a driver when his childhood dream is to winning these races, then to be told it’s taken away, but he’s going to win many more.”
This is a developing story.
Required reading
(Photo: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)
