Revealed: Two crucial factors that led to George Russell’s disqualification at Belgian GP

Mercedes’ George Russell

George Russell’s bold tyre strategy, combined with the absence of a post-race cooldown lap at Spa, have emerged as two key factors behind the Mercedes driver’s disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix.

Russell produced a fine performance at Spa to collect what he thought was a third F1 victory, pipping Mercedes team-mate and seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton to the chequered flag after utilising a one-stop strategy.

How a Spa quirk contributed to George Russell’s disqualification

However, his elation turned to heartbreak just hours later after Russell was disqualified from the official results, with his car found to be 1.5 kilograms beneath the minimum weight limit during post-race checks.

The victory was inherited by Hamilton, who collected his second victory of the F1 2024 season and a record-extending 105th career win.

Russell was praised for pulling off a one-stop strategy in the immediate aftermath of the race, having made his only stop for hard compound tyres on Lap 10 of 44.

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It has emerged, however, that Russell’s tyre strategy may have inadvertently contributed to his disqualification, with such a long second stint on one set of Pirellis significantly reducing the amount of tread on his tyres compared to his rivals.

With his tyres worn so heavily, the amount of wear was considerably more than that of team-mate Hamilton, who – like most drivers – pitted twice (on Laps 11 and 26) over the course of the race.

A number of drivers remarked over the course of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend that the newly relaid surface at Spa had resulted in higher-than-expected levels of degradation, with the warm conditions of race day forcing most of the field on to two-stop strategies.

The absence of a cooldown lap at Spa has also emerged as a contributing factor to Russell’s exclusion.

While a slowdown lap is held at the end of every other race on the F1 calendar, the sheer length of the Spa lap – the longest of the season at 7.0004 kilometres – means the cars enter the pit lane almost immediately at the end of the race and drive in the ‘wrong’ direction towards parc ferme.

Crucially, this quirk of the Spa circuit denied Russell the chance to collect ‘pickup’ – pieces of discarded rubber left on the track as the tyres degrade – on his tyres at the finish.

It is common practice – and entirely legal – for drivers to add pickup on the cooldown lap at the end of a grand prix to ensure they meet car weight limits during post-race scrutineering.

In a statement released after Russell’s disqualification was made official, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff apologised to his driver for “clearly” making a mistake.

And he took encouragement from the W15’s strong performance on race day at Spa, with Mercedes winning three of the last four races heading into F1’s annual summer break.

Wolff said: “We have to take our disqualification on the chin.

“We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it. We will go away, evaluate 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.

“Lewis is of course promoted to P1; he was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner.

“Despite the disqualification, there are many positives we can take from this weekend. We had a car that was the benchmark in today’s race across two different strategies. Only a few months ago, that would have been inconceivable.

“We head into the summer break having won three of the past four races. We will look to come back after shutdown rejuvenated and with the aim of maintaining our positive trajectory.”

Russell described his disqualification as “heartbreaking” in a post on social media, adding: “We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first.

“There will be more to come.”

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