Why was George Russell disqualified from the 2024 F1 Belgian GP? All about the Mercedes driver being stripped of his 3rd career win

As per the latest developments, George Russell’s car failed to meet the preliminary investigation by the FIA following the Belgian Grand Prix race at Spa-Francorchamps. The British driver took victory at the recently concluded race on Sunday afternoon, but his efforts went in vain after the FIA disqualified him and stripped him of the win.

According to a report submitted by the FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer, Russell’s car was found to be underweight. The #63 car was weighed at 798 kilograms initially, which is the minimum requirement by the FIA.

However, once the fuel was drained out of the car, it weighed 796.5 kilograms, 1.5 kilograms less than the required amount. Bauer referred this to The Stewards for their consideration, after which the FIA disqualified Russell and took away his third F1 career win. His disqualification improved Hamilton’s position to P1, followed by Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc to P2 and P3, respectively.

George Russell took his second victory of the season, and third of his career after he kept his teammate Lewis Hamilton at bay, following a superior one-stop strategy at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

What did the Technical Delegate’s report say about George Russell’s car?

Jo Bauer released a technical report on George Russell’s #63 Mercedes W15 on 28 July, 2024 at 17:50 local time. This was just after the main race at Spa-Francorchamps was concluded on Sunday.

“After the race, car number 63 was weighed and it’s weight was 798.0 kg, which is the minimum weight required by the TR Article 4.1. After this, fuel was drained out of the car and 2.8 litres of fuel were removed. The car was not fully drained according to the draining procedure submitted by the team in their legality documents as TR Article 6.5.2 is fulfilled.”

“The car weighed again on the FIA inside and outside scales and the weight was 796.5 kg. The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor. As this is 1.5 kg below the minimum weight requested in the TR Article 4.1, which is also has to be respected at all times during the Competition, I am referring this matter to the Stewards for their consideration,” the report stated.

Russell’s loss would also be monumental for Mercedes who were flying this race weekend. Even though they had Lewis Hamilton take Russell’s place in P1, they lost 18 valuable points in the process.