Mercedes make initial ‘plank wear’ discovery in George Russell DSQ investigation

George Russell’s Belgian GP summed up in a single image

Mercedes have found that George Russell’s car “lost more material on the plank” than average during the Belgian Grand Prix as the team’s investigation into his disqualification continues.

Russell thought he had claimed his third F1 victory at Spa last weekend, narrowly pipping team-mate Mercedes Lewis Hamilton to the chequered flag after pulling off a one-stop strategy.

Mercedes reveal plank wear finds after George Russell disqualified at Spa

However, he was excluded from the official results after his car was found to be 1.5 kilograms below the minimum weight limit during post-race checks.

That meant Russell’s victory went to Hamilton, with the seven-time World Champion celebrating a record-extending 105th race win.

Appearing on Mercedes’ post-race Debrief show, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed the team are “trying to understand exactly what happened” with Russell’s car, with the weights of individual components a key element of the process.

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And he noted that Mercedes have identified the plank as an area that contributed to Russell’s car missing the cut.

Shovlin said: “It was obviously very disappointing and unfortunate, particularly after he had driven such a strong race to win from so far back.

“We are trying to understand exactly what happened. A lot of that involves us getting the weights of all the different components.

“The car can lose quite a lot of weight during the race. You get tyre wear, plank wear, brake wear, oil consumption. The driver themselves can lose a lot, and in this particular race George lost quite a bit of weight.

“The cars started the race the same weight. Lewis and George were both weighed after qualifying. The cars were within 500 grams.

“George’s car was the only one that had the problem, and it is because things like the tyre wear was much higher. It looks like we lost more material on the plank.

“We will collect all that data though, look at how we can refine our processes because clearly, we do not want that to happen in the future.”

Excess plank wear has become a significant concern at Spa since F1’s ground effect regulations were introduced in 2022 as teams aim to run the cars as low to the track surface as possible without causing significant wear to the plank, which carries a high risk of disqualification.

The compression at the famous Eau Rouge corner is a notable problem area, with Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez forced to lift off the throttle through that section of the track en route to a dominant one-two finish in 2023 as the team nursed plank wear.

Hamilton himself fell foul of F1’s strict rules on plank wear at the United States Grand Prix in late 2023, with the seven-time World Champion disqualified from second place in Austin for having excessive wear on his rear skid blocks.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was excluded for the same offence, having finished sixth at the bumpy Circuit of the Americas.

After a frustrating Friday at Spa, Mercedes removed a major upgrade package from the W15 car for the remainder of the Belgian GP weekend.

It is thought that the rain-affected final practice session in Belgium could have impacted the team’s setup work before the upgrade-less cars entered parc ferme conditions in qualifying, potentially leaving Mercedes more exposed to plank wear issues in the dry conditions of race day.

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