Mercedes engineer confirms theory behind George Russell Spa disqualification

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Mercedes has confirmed one of the main theories behind why George Russell’s car was underweight at the end of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Russell took an unlikely victory on the one-stop strategy having climbed up to the lead from sixth on the grid, but during the post-race inspections by the FIA he failed the minimum weight check.

According to the FIA, his Mercedes was found to be 1.5kg under the 798kg minimum weight limit. As it is a breach of the F1 technical regulations, Russell was disqualified and second-placed Lewis Hamilton inherited the win.

There have been several theories as to why Russell’s car was under the weight limit, with Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin confirming one that was long-suspected in their Strategy Debrief video.

Mercedes confirms the theory behind George Russell’s disqualification

Mercedes admitted in the aftermath of the race that it was a genuine mistake rather than any oversight, and has since conducted an investigation into what happened.

Shovlin confirmed the popular theory that Russell converting to the one-stop strategy led to more weight being taken out of the tyres, while also confirming the net effects of it.

“The car can lose quite a bit of weight during the race. You get tyre wear, plank wear, brake wear, oil consumption, the driver themselves can lose a lot. In this race, George lost quite a bit of weight. Now the cars started the race the same weight, Lewis and George were both weighed after qualifying,” said Shovlin.

“The cars were within 500g. George was the only one with the problem because things like the tyre wear was much higher, it looks like we lost more material on the plank. We’ll collect all of that data and look at how we can refine our processes because we don’t want that to happen in the future.”

The unique factors at Spa Francorchamps which affected George Russell

While F1 teams usually take into consideration the expected tyre wear when calculating their race weight, there were a lot of unique factors that ultimately affected Russell.

The ride height is something teams must watch at Spa Francorchamps due to the compression at Eau Rouge leading to more wear on the legality plank. This is often why a trail of yellow resin from the plank appears at the 100m elevation change as the weekend progresses.

Mercedes has been disqualified for excessive plank wear before and while it was within the rules this time, the extra weight would have made a difference to overall car weight.

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Spa is also one of the longest laps on the calendar, which is why the drivers do not get the opportunity to do a ‘cool down’ lap at the end of the race.

Instead, they are told to U-turn into the pit lane after crossing the line, denying them the chance to pick up tyre marbles. This is a well-known practice after a race and can add a significant amount to a car’s overall weight.