Mercedes will adjust its procedures to avoid a repeat of the Belgian Grand Prix incident that saw George Russell disqualified after it was revealed the cars were within 500g of each other at the start of the race.
Russell was disqualified after winning at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday because his car was 1.5kg (3.3lb) underweight. He ran a long distance at the end, employing a one-stop strategy that was not originally planned. Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Schaublin said excessive tyre wear was likely the cause, but reiterated that the problem was unique to Russell’s car.
“It was obviously very disappointing and unfortunate, especially after he had such a strong race to come so far behind,” said Schaublin. “We’re trying to understand exactly what happened.
“A lot of it involves us gaining weight on all the different components. A car can lose a lot of weight over the course of a race. Tires wear, planks wear, brakes wear, oil burn. The drivers themselves can lose a lot, and in this particular race, George lost a lot of weight.
“The cars started the race with the same weight. Louis [Hamilton] And George weighed both after qualifying. The car was within 500 grams. Only George’s car had issues, and it was much worse with things like tire wear. It seems like he lost more material on the board. We’ll collect all the data and look at ways to improve the process, because obviously we don’t want that to happen in the future.”
Schaublin acknowledged that the weight loss would have affected Russell’s overall race time, but said the impact would have been minimal.
“In terms of speed at the start of the race, it’s zero because George’s car and Lewis’ car started the race with the same weight. George’s car lost weight faster than Lewis’s throughout the race, so there’s an advantage associated with that.
“But it’s one hundredth of a second per lap. When you’re talking about one or two kilograms, it’s very small because it doesn’t increase the lap time much. But like I said, the car weighed the same at the start of the race.”
With Hamilton, originally in second place, taking the win, Chauvelin said Mercedes were trying to focus on the positives despite the disappointment of missing out on first and second places thanks to their performance in Belgium.
“It was a very bittersweet moment. It was a fantastic finish to the race. To bring the car home 1-2 was a real achievement, especially because we had a very difficult Friday. But overall, disappointment aside, the team was really encouraged by the performance. It was a great turnaround for the engineering team to sort out the car to perform so well in the race.
“It was encouraging for us because hot circuits weren’t our strong suit this year. The track in Belgium was pretty hot and we were able to do some really good things, especially on the long distances. George definitely did the longest stunt of anyone. There were definitely a lot of positives and it’s a shame we couldn’t maintain the result.”
