Understanding Why George Russell Has Been Disqualified From Belgian GP

Despite crossing the finish line in P1 on Sunday, George Russell failed to win the 2024 Belgian GP following a post-race FIA check. The FIA disqualified him after they deemed his car underweight.

Russell’s infringement goes against Article 4.1 of the FIA’s Technical Regulations (TR) when read with Article 35.3 of the Sporting Regulations (SR). In simple terms, Article 35.3 of the SR states that if a car’s weight is less than the minimum weight prescribed by the TR, then the car will be disqualified.

Meanwhile, as per Article 4.1 of the TR, the minimum mass of a car must be at least 798 kgs with the fuel drained. However, the weight of the driver is to be added to the weight of the car without fuel to calculate the minimum mass for the purposes of Article 4.1.

In Russell‘s case, his W15 weighed the minimum threshold of 798 kgs but with around 2.8 liters of fuel in the car. Once the fuel was drained, his car was weighed again.

However, then the weight of his car was 1.5 kgs less (796.5 kgs). As per the Regulations, once this weight discrepancy was noted, the FIA’s technical delegate referred the matter to the Stewards for their consideration.

Heartbreaking… We came in 1.5kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race.

We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first.

There will be more to come. pic.twitter.com/6RfucAqPyF

— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) July 28, 2024

As per the stewards’ decision, Russell was deemed to be in violation of Article 4.1 of the TR and was hence disqualified. This means he has been removed from the classified list of entrants. As a consequence, his teammate Lewis Hamilton inherited the race win.

As explained by David Croft on X (formerly Twitter), the one-stop strategy that Russell opted for could have contributed to this weight mismatch as excessive wear led to lesser tread on the tire.