Lewis Hamilton, who won at Spa, acknowledged “I know how George feels and it’s disappointing the team couldn’t finish one-two”. Russell recalled his “heartbreaking” exclusion after his car was discovered to be 1.5kg short, but said he was “proud to have crossed the line first” on a one-stop strategy.
Sunday 28 July 2024, 23:24, UK
Lewis Hamilton has admitted he has “mixed emotions” and offered his sympathies to team-mate George Russell after inheriting victory at the Belgian Grand Prix after his Mercedes team-mate’s car was disqualified from the race.
Meanwhile, Russell said after the race that being disqualified for being underweight was “heartbreaking”.
In Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps, the British pair adopted different pit stop strategies and crossed the finish line in a close race.
Hamilton made a blistering start from third on the grid and led the first half of the race on a standard two-stop strategy, but could only manage fifth place in the first stint, losing track position to Russell, who bet on a bold one-stop strategy.
Lewis Hamilton is leading the Belgian Grand Prix after overtaking both Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc early on.
However, Russell’s car was later found to be underweight by the FIA ​​technical delegate and was disqualified from the result, allowing Hamilton to be promoted from second place to win, his fifth victory at Spa and a record 105th of his career.
“I have mixed emotions about today’s result. Of course I’m happy for the win but I understand George’s feelings and am disappointed the team couldn’t achieve a 1-2 finish,” Hamilton said in an Instagram post on Sunday evening.
“But there were a lot of positives to take from today. At the beginning of the weekend we weren’t expecting to be at the front or to be on the pace, so it’s great to see the progress we’ve made and that we’re in the fight. We’ll take all of these positives into the break and come back as a stronger team that can keep the momentum going.”
Hamilton later posted on his Instagram Story: “@georgerussell63 what a great drive today. Really disappointed for you and the team to lose the win and a well-deserved 1-2. Let’s keep trying in the second half for a 1-2.”
Previously, in a post on his Instagram account, a disappointed Russell wrote: “I am heartbroken… I was 1.5kg underweight and disqualified from the race.”
“I gave it my all today and I’m proud to have crossed the finish line first.
“There will be more to come.”
Mercedes admits: Clearly not good enough
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who missed out on his team’s first one-two finish since the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in November 2022 due to a technical infringement, apologised to Russell for the mistake and said the team would investigate why his car was underweight.
In a post-race press release, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin speculated that rubber lost from Briton Russell’s tyres on lap 34 in his final stint was likely a “contributing factor” to his car failing the mandatory post-race weight check, but still acknowledged that Mercedes had “clearly fallen short” in breaching the rules.
“We still don’t know why the car was underweight after the race but we will be conducting a thorough investigation to find the cause,” Shovlin said.
Watch the Belgian Grand Prix race highlights.
“We expect that the loss of tyres from one pit stop played a part and we will work to understand how it happened, but we won’t make excuses.”
“This is clearly not enough and we need to make sure this never happens again.”
Mercedes also made significant changes to their car’s set-up after a tough Friday practice session that saw the W15 slow down the pace, and as Saturday’s running was dominated by rain, the next time the overhauled car ran in dry conditions was during the race.
Hamilton’s car was found to comply with the weight limit, along with the rest of the cars on the grid.
Explained: What was Mercedes’ problem?
Bernie Collins, a former Sky Sports F1 race strategist, explained why Russell’s W15 was underweight during parc ferme inspection:
Before qualifying, i.e. when the cars are in parc ferme, the teams have to predict which car will be lightest throughout qualifying and which car will be lightest during the race. In qualifying it’s easy as they usually predict on dry tyres.
If you look at a race, the car is lightest at the end of the race because the fuel, the engine oil, the driver’s drink are all used up, the plates have worn down, and in this case the tires have worn down. We try to estimate what all these numbers will be at the end of the race and what that will be.
Typically the strategist and tire engineer work together to work out what the strategy is, how many laps they are likely to run on the tires, which determines how much tire wear they will have, and how light the tires are expected to be at the end of the race (as a percentage of the car’s total weight).
George Russell was disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix due to his Mercedes’ car being underweight, allowing Lewis Hamilton to move up from second place to win.
In this case, George did twice as many laps on that set of tyres as expected, and even if there was a margin or a one-stop was considered, it probably wouldn’t have considered a one-stop pit stop on lap 10, so in terms of tyre wear, it’s a much longer stint than anyone would have expected.
At Spa there is no in-lap. Normally the drivers try to pick up the tyres, which is just a safety measure for the weight of the car. At Spa that doesn’t exist. There are no normal loopholes.
On top of that, if the tyres have a lot of pick up, the FIA ​​can require the car to be fitted with a different set of tyres if they deem the other set lighter, but they rarely do that.
What did Hamilton say about the race before Russell was disqualified?
Lewis Hamilton is leading the Belgian Grand Prix after overtaking both Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc early on.
Hamilton ultimately left Belgium with a second win in the last three races to maintain his suddenly momentum-boosting season, but had earlier shown signs of annoyance at being beaten by Russell despite leading for much of the race after a blistering start from third on the grid.
Immediately after the race, before reports of the weight issue with his teammate’s car broke, Hamilton accused Mercedes of getting the strategy wrong.
Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: “George wasn’t with me for the majority of the race.
“So if the strategy had been right, he wouldn’t have been in my race, so we wouldn’t have had that battle. But it’s great to finally have a car that can compete.”
“That’s the reality. Move forward, take a break and have some fun.”
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