Martin Brundle’s calculated George Russell underweight time rejected after shock DSQ

George Russell was disqualified from the Belgian GP

Tom Kristensen does not believe George Russell’s underweight car made a difference at the Belgian Grand Prix, but that the rules are the rules.

Russell crossed the line in first place at the last race before the summer break as the Briton led home a Mercedes 1-2 with Oscar Piastri in third place.

‘George Russell would have won anyway’

However, hours later the joy turned to disappointment when Russell was disqualified for a technical infringement with his car having been 1.5kgs under the minimum 798kg weight.

According to Sky’s Martin Brundle that was worth “1.5 seconds” over the entire 44 laps, but it was a race where the top three were separated by less than 1.2s at the line.

However, racing legend Kristensen doesn’t believe that 1.5kgs made any difference, saying it would need to be more than that to have an impact.

“It’s devastating,” the 57-year-old told the F1 Nation podcast. “Mercedes were to their own admission nowhere on Friday, and then they were blindingly fast. I mean, Lewis Hamilton off the line well and leading the race.

“And then George came from a little bit out of the blue. I mean, okay, there was this radio message, ‘Can you do? Shall we go a one-stint?’ And he was ready to do that immediately.

“That really paid off, he surprised the entire field. And that victory was so sweet and so good.

“I believe he would have won anyway, apart from I mean, one and a half kilos. When you get more than that, of course, it has a little issue.

“But I would just say there is a limit and if you are below the limit you are you have to be thrown out. That’s the rules and they are strong. So I feel for George Russell.”

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Stoffel Vandoorne reckons George Russell gains ‘a few seconds’

Mercedes have since revealed Russell’s and Hamilton’s cars were “within 500 grams” with the team now examining the various parts of Russell’s W15 to understand why it was underweight after the 44 laps.

Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says everything from “tyre wear, plank wear, brake wear” to “oil consumption” can affect the weight of the car, and with Russell, they believe the “tyre wear was much higher” while it also “looks like we lost more material on the plank”.

However, had the car been underweight off the line, former Mercedes driver Stoffel Vandoorne says that’s 1.5kgs less that Russell was carrying over the course of the entire race.

He says that’s worth “a few seconds” in total.

“People might think it’s not a huge amount,” he said. “But actually it means through the whole race, he’s probably been carrying one and a half kilo less weight in the car.

“And actually when teams start calculating that in terms of lap time, that’s probably, you know, maybe a few seconds during the whole race.

“Another thing is that weight is non-negotiable. When the car is underweight, you’ll get disqualified. So yeah, not a not a big surprise, to be honest.”

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