George Russell’s disqualification at the Belgian Grand Prix, explained

George Russell called his shot and delivered a stunning victory in the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday. After pitting on Lap 10, as one of the first drivers at the top of the field to come in for fresh tires, Russell told his team that they could consider making Sunday’s Grand Prix a one-stop race, flying in the face of all conventional wisdom and going against the grain of the rest of the drivers on the grid.

Somehow, Russell managed to last 34 laps on the set of hard tires the team bolted on during that pit stop, holding off teammate Lewis Hamilton to win his second Grand Prix of the season.

However, that win will not count.

Following post-race inspections, it was noted that Russell’s W15 came in underweight. As noted in the below Technical Delegate’s Report, Russell’s W15 was weighted and came in at 798.0 kilograms, which is exactly the minimum weight required by Article 4.1 of the sport’s Technical Regulations.

However, once the fuel was drained out of the car Russell’s W15 was weighed again, and it came in at 796.5 kg:

The matter was referred to the Race Stewards for their consideration, and they heard from the team representative of Mercedes. During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement was correct and that there were no mitigating circumstances.

The Stewards, as noted in their below report, determined that Article 4.1 of the Technical Regulations was breached, and therefore the “standard penalty for such an infringement” needs to be applied.

Which is a disqualification.

As a result, Lewis Hamilton is promoted to P1 with Oscar Piastri bumping up to P2. Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth, is now promoted to a podium position.

Following the decision Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff addressed the news.

“We have to take our disqualification on the chin,” said Wolff in a statement. “We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it. We will go away, evaluation what happened and understand what went wrong.

“To lose a 1-2 is frustrating and we can only apologise to George who drove such a strong race.”

Under the Formula 1 rules, cars are required to have a minimum weight in order to try and level the playing field. The lighter the car, the faster it will be, and many might point to Russell’s car coming in underweight as a potential reason he was able to guide his W15 home by putting 34 laps on the same set of hard tires, while every other driver was forced to make at least two stops on Sunday.

The disqualification also takes away what had been Mercedes’ first one-two finish since the 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix.

Yet one more storyline to track as the grid heads into the summer shutdown.