Written by Jake O’Callaghan
Today’s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix was one of the most exciting and interesting races of the season. Amidst the excitement up and down the grid, one driver stood above the rest: George Russell. His superb tyre management, race craft, and strategic improvisation allowed him to cross the line just ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton in second and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in third. However, this victory would be short lived, as just two hours following the chequered flag, Russell’s win would be stripped as he was issued with a disqualification for a technical infringement. Here we will discuss Russell’s race, the nature of the disqualification, and how his individual performance does not deserve to be diminished merely because his car fell foul of the rules.
The Race
Russell started the race on medium tyres in sixth place. He quickly passed Lando Norris for fifth on the opening lap. George would run off the track at the Les Combes chicane but retained P5 for the time being. He kept position before pitting on lap 11 to fit a new set of hard tyres. His next overtake was on Sergio Perez for P4, passing him decisively as the Red Bull driver struggled with car balance and overall pace.
At this point it was becoming evident that it was a hard tyre race, with the white-walled rubber proving far superior to the softs or mediums in terms of race pace and degradation. Despite this, most teams still opted for the two-stop strategy, as was expected prior to the race. The nature of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit means it is brutally punishing on tyres, with many high-load corners such as Eau Rouge-Raidillon, Pouhon, and Blanchimont. The high temperatures on this sunny Sunday afternoon exacerbated the degradation faced by the tyres. A one-stop strategy seemed merely a pipe dream, until George Russell told his team he wanted to try just that.
Pitting on lap 11, it meant he would have to push his hard compound tyres a massive 34 laps to make it to the end. Approaching the end of the race, it seemed that the charging Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri would swallow Russell up before the conclusion, but Russell kept enough life in his tyres to put up a fight.
With a few laps to go Hamilton and Piastri were right on his back, but using carefully-planned and strategic uses of his ERS system and combined with other-worldly tyre management, Russell was able to keep the two drivers behind at bay, winning the race by just half a second ahead of his teammate Hamilton, with Piastri another six tenths back. The closest gap between the top three in Formula 1 since 2016. This victory was a huge release of emotion for George, with the Brit triumphantly whooping on the radio after crossing the line. Unfortunately, it would soon become apparent that this victory would not be his for long.
Disqualification
About an hour after the finish of the Grand Prix, the FIA published a document on their website stating that George Russell’s car was being investigated for a “technical infringement,” more specifically, the weight of his car was called into question. Following advanced FIA checks as is standard at every race, Russell’s car was found to be 1.5kg underweight. Precedent dictates that the punishment for this type of infringement is disqualification from the race.
Roughly an hour following the flagging of this issue to the FIA stewards by Technical Delegate Jo Bauer, the decision was taken to, indeed, disqualify Russell from the race. This meant that Lewis Hamilton inherited the win, taking the 105th victory of his career. Oscar Piastri was promoted to second, with Charles Leclerc being moved up to the final podium spot.
This was the first time a Formula 1 driver had been disqualified from the victory in 30 years, since Michael Schumacher had been found to have had excessive plank wear at the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix, which promoted Williams driver Damon Hill to the victory.
Online commentators and paddock personalities quickly began speculating as to why George Russell’s car was 1.5kg underweight (which is massive by F1 standards). Former F1 race strategist and F1TV pundit Ruth Buscombe floated some theories on X (formerly Twitter): “Could be a lot of things… something’s gone wrong with change of spec and no dry running to calibrate; no in lap here to pick up rubber doesn’t help.”
F1 Journalist Chris Medland added to this point: “Suggestion from Wolff backs up Ruth’s point about excessive tyre wear on the one-stop and the weight across four tyres potentially being a factor here.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff suggested that because the one-stop strategy was so unexpected, Mercedes did not account for the extra weight that was shed by Russell’s extremely worn tyres. Collectively, F1’s Pirelli tyres add 30.5kg of weight to the cars. It is not inconceivable that they could lose more than 1.5kg of weight than expected with high degradation, especially when the strategy Russell opted for was seemingly-spontaneous and not planned for in advance. Add to that the fact that Spa does not have a traditional in-lap, with drivers instead driving backwards through the pitlane right after crossing the line as the seven kilometre circuit is too long for an in-lap. This means that drivers do not have an opportunity to pick up discarded rubber to add weight to their tyres, a common practice to ensure their car is in conformity with the regulations. All of these unique and unpredictable factors combined make it evident to see how Mercedes may have fallen foul of the FIA's regulations.
Russell’s drive should not be forgotten
In the end, disqualification was a fair verdict for a car found to be obviously out of conformity with the FIA regulations. Despite this, it must not allow Russell’s Belgian Grand Prix drive to be discredited. He drove a magnificent race, perhaps the best of his career. His ability to think and take initiative to change his strategy on a whim from within the car was impressive. His tyre management skills were second-to-none, leading to Team Principal Wolff dubbing Russell “the tyre whisperer.” This impeccable tyre management, pushing his hard tyres nearly twice as long as expected, allowed him to fight with the hard-charging Hamilton and Piastri, who both had approximately-15 laps less wear in their tyres. His defence in the closing laps deserves commendation, and Russell deservedly earned praise from across the motorsports world for his efforts. Hopefully, these efforts are not disregarded in lieu of his unfortunate disqualification.
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