Despite finishing first in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, George Russell was disqualified by the stewards after it was determined that his car did not meet the minimum weight requirement.
It didn’t seem like George Russell knew he was going to be disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix.
Russell won the race on Sunday, but an inspection later revealed that his car was underweight. Russell’s Mercedes was 1.5 kg over the minimum weight required, according to the report presented to the stewards by Jo Bauer, the FIA’s technical delegate for Formula One.
As a result, the race officials opened an investigation, and Russell was rightfully disqualified from the competition and forfeited his victory. Lewis Hamilton moved up to the top as a result, leaving Russell to comfort himself.
Russell, though, didn’t seem to be aware of what was happening in the stewards room at first. Russell uploaded two pictures of himself holding his winner’s trophy a few minutes after Bauer’s report went live.
His post’s caption read, “P1!!!” What a fantastic feeling, from P6 to the top step! Although it was risky, using the hard tires for 34 laps paid off. Having a 1-2 going into the break demonstrates that all of your hard work is paying off. We have never stopped believing and never will. Team, let’s go!!!”
It turned out that Russell made a bad timing statement because he lost his victory a little over an hour later. Before making their choice, the stewards conferred with Bauer, a representative of the Mercedes team, the FIA Single Seater Director, and the FIA Single Seater Technical Director.
“Car 63 is disqualified from the Race classification,” they declared in a statement. Every other driver advances in the hierarchy. The FIA Technical Delegate, the FIA Single Seater Director, the FIA Single Seater Technical Director, and George Russell, the team representative of Car 63, spoke to the Stewards.
The FIA outside and inside scales yielded the same result of 796.5 kg when Car 63 was weighed. The competitor attested to and saw the calibration of both scales.
“The team representative at the hearing attested to the accuracy of the measurement and the proper execution of all necessary procedures. The team also admitted that there were no extenuating factors and that their mistake was real.
“The Stewards conclude that there has been a violation of Article 4.1 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations, and as a result, the standard penalty for this type of infringement must be implemented.”
Russell would have only won three races in his career, and he did so by astonishingly holding off teammate Lewis Hamilton with just one pit stop. Toto Wolff, the manager of the Mercedes team, was disappointed with the outcome.
“If the stewards rule against us, we’ll have to accept it. Yet things are as they are. Prior to the announcement of the decision, the Silver Arrows team principal stated that a one-two would have been an excellent outcome.
“Although there are team benefits to consider, George is deeply hurt as a driver who had dreamed of winning these races since he was a young child and that dream has now been dashed. Something went wrong.”
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