Before the FIA disqualified him for an underweight car after the race, it seemed that George Russell pulled out a strategic masterstroke as he crossed the chequered flag in P1 at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix. As a result of Russell’s disqualification, Lewis Hamilton won the race, while Oscar Piastri finished second. But there was a possibility that Piastri could have won the race if McLaren played their cards correctly.
According to Martin Brundle, a driver must be at least half a second faster than the leading car to be able to overtake at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. With this in mind, if Russell‘s pace on a one-stopper is compared with Hamilton on fresh hards, Piastri most likely would have been able to stay ahead of the chasing Mercedes duo on his old set of hard tires.
With 14 laps to go, Piastri had a 5.5s advantage over Russell before he pitted. Meanwhile, Hamilton was another seven seconds behind the #63 driver and was struggling to pass him.
BREAKING: #BelgianGP winner George Russell has been disqualified from the race for an underweight car #F1 pic.twitter.com/SfEgH61NzG
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 28, 2024
What lap times would have helped Piastri possibly win the Belgian GP?
Holding the lead of the race on lap 29 before making the pit stop, Piastri could have done lap times in the range of 1.47.700s – 1.47.300s (Russell’s average lap times from lap 40 to lap 44). Meanwhile, Hamilton was only a tenth or two faster, on average, in the turbulent air of his teammate.
Unlike Piastri, however, Russell would not have been driving in clean air. Hence, it would have been a herculean task for Russell to pass the #81 driver with a similar tire delta. Thus, allowing the young Australian to edge out the 26-year-old Briton and win the race if he had not pitted.
That being said, Russell’s disqualification from the Grand Prix classification could have been Piastri’s fate as well. Owing to a one-stop strategy, the tread on the #63 driver’s tires were considerably lesser than that of his competitors.
This affected the overall weight of the car. In the end, Russell’s W15 was disqualified for being 1.5 kgs below the 798 kgs minimum mass prescribed by the FIA.
