Mercedes ‘cheating’? Leads to Russell disqualification from Belgian GP win  –  George Russell won the 2024 Belgium Grand Prix by calling his own tyres strategy which beat his team mate Lewis Hamilton. After the race Hamilton was unimpressed believing the team should have afforded him the same strategy which would have seen him beat his team mate.

Yet after the chequered flag FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer issued a statement at 17.50 local time, claiming that the double weighing procedure showed that George Russell’s W15 failed to reach the minimum weight of 798kg.

The statement read: “After the race, car number 63 was weighed and its weight was 798.0kg, which is the minimum weight by TR Article 4.1. After this, fuel was drained out of the car and 2.8 litres 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 765.5kg.

 

 

 

 

FIA statement over underweight Mercedes

“The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor. As this is 1.5kg below the minimum weight requested in TR Article 4.1, which also has to be respected at all times during the Competition, I am referring this matter to the Stewards for their consideration.”

It’s clear that even though the car was over the legal weight limit when first measured, the actual weight of F1 cars must be more than 798kg when all the fuel has been drained. Interestingly the usual sample size is one litre taken by the FIA to ensure legal fuel has been used, yet it appears the FIA were suspicious anyway having taken the regular litre sample, they then decided to drain the entire fuel system.

When an underweight car is reported to the stewards by the FIA delegates is in the case with pit lane speeding, the result is usually a slam dunk penalty. Russell will then be disqualified from the Grand Prix and Lewis Hamilton promoted as the winner.

Yet the question now will be is whether Lewis Hamilton’s car is also weighted. Further, was this a Mercedes plan to disguise an underweight car by hoping the FIA 1 litre fuel extraction wold be the only amount of fuel removed?

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No warm down lap in Spa

At Spa Francorchamp which at 7km is the longest circuit on the F1 calendar, the teams do not perform their usual cool down lap after the chequered flag. The procedure sees the drivers take turn one and then enter the paddock and pit lane driving the opposite way along it than is the case during the race.

The drivers on the post chequered flag lap usually try to drive on the dirty side of the track to pick up rubber ‘marbles’ discarded from the tyres during the race. This is standard procedure given across the four wheels this can amount to a significant weight increase.

So did Mercedes forget to calculate this when feeling the car? Or would it not be possible to pick up 1.5kg of discarded rubber? Further, Russell had no DRS for his final stint and it could have been this which caused him to use more fuel than the team expected.

During the race when leading, Lewis Hamilton was told to ‘lift and coast’ more which at the time was assumed to be because there had been no safety car as predicted. Yet in the final act George was forced to press on as Hamilton was closing him down at over half a second per lap. It could be Russell had not saved sufficient fuel, yet the target for the team would be to finish with just the fuel required the FIA controls check.

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Mercedes cancel team photograph

Mercedes cancelled the regular post team photograph where the drivers and their finishing positions are celebrated with the race crew and pit boards stating the final standings. During this time Russell’s car was re-weighed and it appeared team representatives were asking for new tyres to be fitted for the re-weight.

While the race winner’s car is always weighed in parc ferme, it could be the FIA delegate now asks for Hamilton’s car to be weighed too. The last time drivers were disqualified following the race for technical infringements, was in last years USGP which is held annually in Austin, Texas. Hamilton and Leclerc were found to have too much plank wear under their cars, which means the teams had been running them below the legal ride height level.

Hamilton had finished a brilliant second, harrying the triumphant Max Verstappen all the way to the line. He had been running a new floor at this event, Mercedes bringing their last major upgrade package of the year to Austin.

Leclerc crossed the line in sixth, fractions of a second ahead of the second Mercedes of George Russell after falling back in the late stages on the less favoured one-stop strategy.

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F1 Championship changes 

Max Verstappen now has gone four races without a win, this last happened back in the 2020 season when Lewis Hamilton last won an F1 drivers’ title. The gap between Red Bull and McLaren before any DSQ closed by nine points although unless Hamilton is disqualified too. If Hamilton retains the win then the gap to McLaren will decrease by a further point should due to Piastri being promoted to P2.

Sergio Perez had a hapless race having started in second following his team mates ten place grid drop for taking too many power unit components this season. He finished in eighth place, although a fresh set of rubber with one lap remaining saw Checo claim the fastest lap of the race.

A downbeat Lewis Hamilton blamed the team strategy he was given for not winning the Grand Prix, repeating in more than one interview that he had plenty of rubber on his tyres at the end of each stint. Yet Hamilton may now claim his record 105th race win, taking him further ahead of Michael Schumacher in the all time historic standings.

Ruusell’s only hope is that a piece of his car weighing 1.5kg or more parted company with the chassis during the race, although the footage broadcast by the F1 TV director didn’t show any such instance of parts flying off the Mercedes’ car.

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BREAKING UPDATE – Russell now disqualified

“Car 63 is disqualified from the race classification,” the FIA revealed at 19:01 local time and Lewis Hamilton was promoted to race winner.

Mercedes now claim to Sky F1’s Craig Slater, they believe it was the switch from a two stop to a one stop which meant Russell ran on his hard tyres for 3/4 of the race. The extra tyre degradation due to the one stop could have been several hundred grams per tyre.

Christian Horner when asked agreed this could well be the reason. “You would have lost well over a kilo of rubber as we saw on Friday. but you have to carry enough fuel as blast. Sad news for George, but you have to comply by the regulations.”

Having received the news Russell posted on X at 19:22 local time: “Heartbreaking… We came in 1.5kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race. We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first. There will be more to come.”

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Hamilton blames Mercedes for his poor race strategy

Just as the pecking order at the front of the Formula One grid is shifting, the spot now moves into a four week summer break. Mercedes have won three of the last four races and at the 2024 Belgium Grand Prix it was George Russell who triumphed over his team mate Lewis Hamilton.

The front eight left the rest of the field behind, although Sergio Perez faded on the final stint of his three finishing 43 seconds behind the eventual winner.

Lewis Hamilton complained at there end of the race that he had plenty of tyre life left at the end of each stop. The suggesting simply being it was the team’s lack of foresight not to also put the seven times world champion on a one stop race plan.  READ MORE