The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, admitted his team had no excuse for the error that cost George Russell the win at the Belgian Grand Prix, which the Austrian described as a “massive blow” for his driver.
Russell was disqualified at Spa-Francorchamps when his car was found to be underweight in a post-race inspection by the FIA and the win was awarded to his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was second.
Russell had won with a brilliant drive, making the decision to try a one-stop strategy against the odds that paid off brilliantly. He was leading through the final laps and held off Hamilton’s challenge with great verve and composure. However two hours later he was disqualified by the stewards, when his Mercedes was found to be 1.5kg under the minimum stipulated weight of 798kg. Mercedes admitted they were at fault and that it had been agonising for Russell.
“There is no excuse,” said Wolff. “We have to take it on the chin. We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it. For George that is a massive blow as a driver, all those childhood dreams of winning these races and then it’s been taken away.”
Russell made his feelings clear in a post on social media. “Heartbreaking … We came in 1.5kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race,” he wrote. “We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first. There will be more to come.”
The FIA, which routinely inspects every winning car in parc fermé after the race, including checking their weight, had measured it both inside and outside the garage and had its instruments checked by Mercedes. It acknowledged in its statement announcing the disqualification that Mercedes had not contested its decision or its findings.
“During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly,” it read.
“The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.”
The finish would have been Mercedes’s first one-two since the Brazilian GP in 2022 but Wolff insisted that for all the disappointment, their performance at least demonstrated how far they had come since being off the pace at the start of the season.
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“A mistake has happened and a one and two would have been a great result going into the summer break, it couldn’t be any better,” he said.
“The very positive we can take from this race is that we had two cars that were the benchmark in this race with two different strategies.
Only a few months ago, that would have been inconceivable.” Mercedes also had a disqualification last year at the US Grand Prix, when Hamilton was stripped of second place after the floor of his car was found to have breached the regulations.
