Disqualification of George Russell leads to investigations at Mercedes

Mercedes admitted it would launch an investigation into George Russell’s disqualification at the Belgian Grand Prix after he won the race. Andrew Shovlin, the chief engineer at the Mercedes circuit, vowed to get to the bottom of the cause without “looking for excuses”.

Russell bravely opted for a one-stop strategy at Spa while the rest of the field pitted twice and won the race ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton after a close battle at the end.

But to Russell’s dismay, a few hours after the race, it was announced that he had been disqualified because his W15 F1 car was 1.5 kilograms underweight. While Mercedes suspects tire wear and the lack of a safety car to save fuel as the reason, Shovlin assured that the incident was being investigated. Speaking to the media, he said, as quoted by Racing News 365:

“It’s really tough for George to be disqualified from the win after such an impressive ride.

“He did an excellent job of keeping the tires in control and defending them until the finish. We don’t yet know why the car was too light after the race, but we will investigate this thoroughly to find the explanation.

“We believe that rubber loss from the one-stop race was a contributing factor and we will work to determine how this occurred.”

“However, we will not look for excuses. It is clearly not good enough and we must ensure that this does not happen again.”

Mercedes breathed a sigh of relief as Hamilton was right behind Russell, meaning the Brackley-based team secured points with the seven-time world champion’s win. Shovlin added:

“It was a relief that Lewis was second and inherited the win. He also drove a strong race and was the fastest two-stop car on the field today.”

“We can be happy with the speed of the car, but overall it is disappointing not to come away with first and second place.

“This is especially true after such a good recovery from one of our most difficult Fridays and after a race that was so well managed by the team.”

“We will learn from this and come back strong after the summer break in Zandvoort.”