Mercedes representatives met with the FIA stewards at Spa-Francorchamps, with George Russell’s victory removed over a technical infringement.
With George Russell utilising an unexpectedly long second stint on the hard tyres to run a one-stop strategy, the British driver led home a Mercedes 1-2 only to be summoned over a technical infringement hours after the race.
Toto Wolff: We have to take it on the chin
The FIA stewards found that Russell’s car, once drained of its remaining fuel – 2.8 litres – was 1.5kg below the minimum weight requirement for driver and car. Russell’s car weighed in at 796.5kg, with the minimum requirement being 798kg.
Speaking to media, including PlanetF1.com, just as Mercedes representatives headed to the stewards to discuss the alleged infringement, team boss Toto Wolff didn’t get into speculating what may have gone wrong.
“Well, it’s been reported to the steward that there is a weight discrepancy, we’ll see what the stewards will decide,” he said, with a possibility being a lack of rubber left on the tyre after running more than half the race with unexpectedly low degradation.
Another factor could have been a lack of rubber pick-up, known as marbles – with Spa-Francorchamps being over five kilometres long, there is no cooldown lap to allow drivers the chance to dirty up their tyres.
“I can’t comment because the stewards haven’t said their verdict,” Wolff continued.
“But, clearly, it was unexpected to run with one tyre throughout the race, so let’s see what they say.”
Shortly after Wolff spoke to the media, news filtered through from the FIA that Russell had indeed been disqualified. The stewards revealed the calibration of both weighing scales, inside and outside the FIA garages, was correct and witnessed by Mercedes.
During the hearing with the stewards, Mercedes confirmed measurements taken by the FIA were correct and all required procedures had been carried out correctly.
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With no mitigating circ*mstances to present, Mercedes admitted an error had been made by the team, and Russell’s disqualification thus moves Lewis Hamilton up to first place for his second win in three race weekends.
“Look, you know, we have to take it on the chin if the stewards decide against us,” he said just before the disqualification news broke.
“It is what it is, a mistake has happened or could have happened and a 1-2 would have bee been a great result going into the summer break, it couldn’t go any better.
“The positives, the very positive, that we can take from this race is that we had two cars that were the benchmark in this race with two different strategies. Who would have said that a few months ago? And that is that is really good to see.
“I think it’s the one-stop that you expect lots of rubber, maybe more, but there’s no excuse.
“If the stewards team deems it to be a breach of regulations, then it is what it is. We have to learn from that and, as a team, you know there are more positives to take.
“Obviously, for George, that’s a massive blow – a driver and all his childhood dreams to win these races and then it’s being probably taken away, but he’s gonna win many more.”
Mercedes released a statement after the disqualification, holding its hands up for the error made.
“We have to take our disqualification on the chin,” Wolff said.
“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.”
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