Tricks? Conspiracies? Ted Kravitz weighs in on George Russell’s Belgian GP DSQ

Adamant there was “not a conspiracy” or “trick” behind George Russell’s underweight W15 at Spa, Ted Kravitz says the FIA still had to disqualify the Briton for the “sporting credibility” of Formula 1.

Russell was the first driver to cross the line at the Belgian Grand Prix only to be stripped of his victory hours later when his Mercedes was found to be 1.5kg under the minimum 798kg weight.

George Russell was DSQ’ed in Spa for a technical infringement

By no means a game-changer, former F1 driver Martin Brundle calculating the advantage to be “2.5 seconds” over the entire race, Russell was disqualified as the rules are the rules.

Mercedes accepted the FIA’s ruling with team boss Toto Wolff explaining to the media including PlanetF1.com that it was a “mistake” and was likely the result of Russell’s one stop strategy and the driver not picking up enough rubber.

“But,” he added, “there’s no excuse. We have to learn from that and, as a team, you know there are more positives to take.”

Wolff’s “rubber” comment was further explained by Brundle in his Sky column where he said: “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.

“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.”

Key data as George Russell is disqualified in Spa

👉 Disqualified George Russell data emerges with simple Hamilton question answered

👉 Revealed: Two crucial factors that led to George Russell’s disqualification at Belgian GP

Russell with his one-stop strategy and excessive tyre wear potentially wasn’t able to pick up those marbles that would’ve brought his W15 up to the legal weight.

But don’t for a moment think this was a “trick” by Mercedes or a “conspiracy” says Kravitz, it was simply a case of a mistake was made – however it was made – by Mercedes and Russell lost the race win as per the regulations.

Speaking about the “sporting credibility of F1” meaning they had to disqualify Russell otherwise it would “not be fair”, Kravitz added in his Ted’s Notebook : “I’m not suggesting Mercedes have done some trick here, right.

“This was a mess up. This is not a conspiracy, this is a mess up.

“Either George did not do enough lift and coasting or they didn’t put enough fuel in the car or they had a weird software thing where they used more fuel than they thought.”

“But,” he continued, “if you finish the race and your car is 1.5 kilos under, even with quite a bit sizeable fuel sample, then you’re going to be disqualified.

“To maintain the sporting integrity of Formula 1 then you have to put your hands up and say that was a mistake and that’s fair enough.”

Follow PlanetF1.com’s WhatsApp channel for all the F1 breaking news!