Martin Brundle calculates George Russell underweight Mercedes time after shock Spa DSQ

Martin Brundle’s calculations have George Russell’s underweight W15 being worth “2.5 seconds” at Spa, that’s for the entire race, not just one lap.

But given 1.173s separated the top three at the chequered flag, “oversimplifying” it, it did make a difference.

George Russell was disqualified for his W15 being underweight

Russell crossed the finish line first at the Belgian Grand Prix as Mercedes celebrated a 1-2 result, their first since 2022, with the Briton leading home his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

They were separated by just over half a second with Oscar Piastri claiming third place, the trio separated by just metres.

But the champagne celebrations were short-lived, at least for Russell, as he was disqualified from the race when his W15 was found to be 1.5kgs under the minimum required weight of 798kgs.

Team boss Toto Wolff admitted Mercedes made a “mistake”, telling the media including PlanetF1.com: “Look, you know, we have to take it on the chin.

“It is what it is, a mistake has happened and a 1-2 would have been been a great result going into the summer break, it couldn’t go any better.

“I think it’s the one-stop that you expect lots of rubber, maybe more, but there’s no excuse. We have to learn from that and, as a team, you know there are more positives to take.”

And it definitely is one for Mercedes to take on the chin as Brundle simply says the rules are the rules.

“Mercedes had totally unexpectedly pulled a one-two out of the bag for their third victory in four races. They kept the victory with Hamilton, but the one-two fell away when Russell’s car was found to be 1.5kg underweight against a specified minimum of 798kg with no fuel onboard,” he wrote in his Sky Sports column.

“Teams must calculate an end-of-race weight due to the consumables such as fluids, brake discs and pads, and underfloor skid blocks and legality ‘plank’. If anything has obviously fallen off the car due to contact, for example, that can be replaced with an identical part.

“In Spa, due to the long lap, there is no slow-down lap and the cars are directed into the pit lane exit to trundle down it the wrong way towards the podium and parc ferme.

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“I always think that’s a shame for the fans and should be revisited, but it’s longstanding and will be factored in by the teams as this means there is no chance to pick up discard rubber ‘marbles’ offline and add significant weight to each tyre.

“Charlie Whiting once told me that strictly speaking the scrutineers could ask for excessive ‘pick up’ to be scraped off for weighing purposes, but I’m not aware that’s ever happened.

“Russell completed 75 per cent of the Grand Prix on one set of tyres in a relentless race on a grippy circuit, with no respite of a Safety Car, either physical or virtual.

“The legality ‘plank’ under the cars devised to avoid them running too low, and every team having to put on a super expensive new floor every day as we used to do in the ’80s, would also be worn away to an extent as we could clearly see them smoking away in high-speed Eau Rouge and Blanchimont on full fuel at the start of the race.

“The impressive five-page scrutineering document released by the FIA post-race, as per usual, is silent on measuring plank wear other than Leclerc’s Ferrari being randomly selected for extra physical checks which I would assume includes the plank.

“All 19 finishers were checked for weight and numerous other aspects.

“Weighing scales were validated, and the Mercedes team could only accept that a mistake had been made, and car number 63 was duly disqualified.

“There can be no tolerance on this. By saying, for example, ‘it’s only half a kilo light, it didn’t make any difference’, leaves the door open for ‘it’s only a kilo light, and that’s only half a kilo more than Team X last week and that was deemed irrelevant’.

“Rules most definitely are rules here.”

As for what being 1.5kg under the mandated weight was worth to Russell, Brundle put that down to “2.5 seconds” for the entire Grand Prix.

But it was a Grand Prix where the top three were decided by a margin of just 1.173 seconds.

“I calculate 1.5kg to be worth around 2.5 seconds over the course of the race, and the top three were covered by 1.173 seconds, but that’s oversimplifying it to say the least as there are a multitude of other factors at play,” he said.

“It’s totally conceivable that Russell going onto a surprise one-stop strategy, with good grip and balance using all four tyres hard, that they could easily be a combined 1.5kg lighter.”

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