Almost 16 years ago, Lewis Hamilton took the chequered flag first at the end of a heart-stopping final sequence of laps to win the Belgian Grand Prix for the first time in his Formula 1 career.
Or so he thought. Two hours after stepping off the podium, trophy in hand, the McLaren driver was informed victory was no longer his.Deemed to have cut the Bus Stop chicane and gained an advantage while battling Kimi Raikkonen for the lead three laps from the finish, the stewards handed Hamilton a 25-second hammer blow which cost him victory, handing it to his championship rival Felipe Massa.
A decade-and-a-half later, the ripple effects from that single incident can still be felt throughout modern Formula 1. It was the first in a series of controversial incidents that marred the conclusion of that 2008 title fight – legal battles are still being fought over another. But what happened at Spa arguably started a shift in the culture of the sport where interventions by the stewards went from a rarity to a regularity.
Mercedes were expected by many to be stronger through Spa’s flowing curves than they had been the previous weekend around the super-sized karting track that is the Hungaroring. But Red Bull’s resurgence had seen Max Verstappen return to the top of the times in a drizzly qualifying session, while Sergio Perez had even backed up his team mate with third-fastest time.
Hamilton had beaten the two McLarens, which dominated the previous Sunday, to fourth on the grid. But with Verstappen paying for a fifth power unit with a 10-place grid penalty, Charles Leclerc had picked up pole in his place, while Hamilton had moved up to third.
Spa had gone from soggy to sunny by the time cars lined up on the grid for the start of the 14th round of the championship. With low downforce and low grip expected from the semi-repaved circuit, no one was entertaining the thought of anything but a two-stop strategy. Almost everyone had opted to start the race on the medium compound; among the top 10, only the seventh-placed Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jnr was on hards.
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For the third successive Belgian Grand Prix, a Ferrari lined up on pole position. But would it still be leading by the time it reached Les Combes?
The top five reached Les Combes almost as a single unit, Leclerc emerging with his lead intact, from Hamilton, Perez, Piastri and Russell in fifth. Verstappen gained a modest two places by the end of the opening lap to sit in ninth, before driving around Fernando Alonso at the start of the second lap for eighth – meaning only his seven main rivals now sat ahead of him.
Hamilton waited until the start of lap three to make his move on Leclerc. But despite the DRS activation point at the exit of Raidillon being 75m further down the circuit than recent years, the shorter zone was little benefit to the Ferrari and Hamilton breezed through into the lead before reaching the end of the straight. But once out in front, Hamilton did not take off in the clean air. Instead, the top eight cars belonging to the top four teams all remained covered by less than ten seconds – all caring for their Pirellis over outright pace.
So it remained until the end of lap ten. While several of the midfield runners had stopped by then, Russell was the first of the leaders to pit, receiving the call as he prepared to hit the brakes for the final chicane. Around 23 seconds later, Russell returned to the track just behind Tsunoda on hard tyres. While he did not know it at the time, he would end up having to make his new rubber last all 34 remaining laps of the race.
Verstappen followed Russell into the pits, Red Bull having an eye on getting ahead of Norris. At the end of the next lap, Hamilton, Perez and Piastri were all in. Although Russell had only had seven kilometres of benefit from his fresh hards, that was enough for him to beat the McLaren out of the pit lane. However, Piastri immediately tucked into his slipstream and popped out to pass Mercedes in the DRS zone approaching Les Combes.
The next lap, another place gained by Piastri. This time Perez, on new mediums, was the victim, moving Piastri up to what was likely to be a net third position behind Leclerc, who had also stopped. Sainz was now leading, with Norris also yet to stop behind. Despite a trip across the gravel at Stavelot following a snap of oversteer, on lap 15, costing him two seconds, Sainz stayed out while Norris decided now was the time to pit. But as a result of allowing almost all of his rivals to pit before him, Norris down to eighth place by the team he rejoined with fresh hards.
Sainz opted to remain out until just before half-distance at the end of lap 20. That put Hamilton back in the lead, but his advantage over Leclerc was still the same as it had been before their respective stops. Behind, Perez was struggling to pull away from Russell, despite his softer tyres. It did not take long for the Mercedes to pass him.
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After the first day on running on Friday, many drivers reported tyre wear being far worse than they had expected – likely exacerbated by the mix of new and old asphalt. But teams were finding that the tyres they removed from their cars were in a much better condition than they had expected. Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington reported that “wear on the previous set looks good”, implying that he could likely afford to lean more on his tyres if he wanted.
On lap 26, Piastri was freed when Leclerc was brought in for a second stop for hard tyres, immediately setting his personal best lap of the race. When Hamilton covered the Ferrari at the end of the next lap, Piastri continued to find more time, posting a new fastest lap of the race on his 15-lap old tyres.
“I was amazed at how much difference the dirty air made today,” he later explained. “When Lewis and Charles pitted for the second stop, I think I went like one second faster just because I had clean air.”
Despite their unleashed driver’s pace on his well-used hard tyres, McLaren were always intending to bring Piastri in. Mercedes were also planning to pit Russell, but facing the prospect of likely falling to seventh with a risk of being caught and passed by Perez, Russell was eager to zig while the others zagged.
“Think about the one-stop,” he suggested to race engineer Marcus Dudley, who did not seem interested at first.
“Are you sure these tyres won’t go to the end?,” Russell challenged him.
“They will,” Dudley conceded, “but we think it’s quicker to stop.”
But Russell was adamant. “At the moment, they’re just going quicker and quicker, the tyres. I’m still going green, mate.” Afterwards Russell confirmed the lap time gain mostly came on the new sections of track.
Russell’s pleas were starting to sway his team. Dudley let him know Mercedes were “discussing” his proposal. But as it became clear he would lose multiple positions if he did stop, it was starting to become worth the gamble.
“And George, just confirming you’re happy to stay out?,” Dudley double-checked. “Yes!” Russell affirmed before his engineer had even finished speaking.
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While Mercedes were now committing to a one-stop, McLaren still agreed that new tyres would be quicker over the 14 remaining laps. Piastri was brought in from the lead and told to be “accurate on the marks.” In this he failed, and his front jack man went for a wild ride as Piastri ran long.
“I just went in a bit hot really,” Piastri later admitted. “It wasn’t my finest moment. I don’t think it really cost much in the scheme of things.”
“I was just watching the TV screens every lap, down after Eau Rouge, and just looking at the gap every single lap,” Russell explained after the race. “And they just weren’t catching me as quick as I expected. And my lap times were just improving every single lap.”
While Hamilton was slowly reeling Russell in, Piastri was the fastest car on track by a wide margin. He hunted down Leclerc before sweeping around the outside of the Ferrari with a bold move at Les Combes to move up to third. But getting by Leclerc so quickly gave him eight laps in which to try and chase down the Mercedes ahead.
Hamilton was eating into Russell’s lead ahead, taking almost a second a lap out of his team mate until he was just outside of DRS range with five laps remaining. Despite looking at a potential one-two, no team orders were issued by Mercedes.
“Think about strat-13,” Bonnington suggested to Hamilton in his pursuit of the leader. “Just make sure you give each other plenty of space.”
“That’s a good lap, Oscar,” Piastri’s engineer Tom Stallard encouraged him. “Hamilton’s catching Russell ahead. There’s going to be action ahead – we want to be there.”
But just as Piastri had discovered how much clean air could give him earlier in the race, both he and Hamilton were now realising that those final car lengths would be exponentially more challenging to make up.
“I definitely thought he was going to be very close,” Russell later admitted. “But equally, I recognise how difficult it is to overtake here. We’re all running these skinny rear wings – the drag isn’t substantial.”
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Hamilton tried but could not find a way to get tucked up in the slipstream of the other Mercedes. At the start of the final lap, all three were covered by under two seconds. Hamilton’s exit from La Source was not good enough to get him the momentum he needed to make a move and now it looked as though Russell was about to pull off the great escape. Hamilton was not close enough through Blanchimont to dare dream of a last-gasp lunge and Russell exited the chicane to power over the line and complete one of the great heists in recent grand prix history.
At every other circuit on the calendar, drivers complete a victory lap after taking the chequered flag. Drivers invariably use this opportunity to drive over the discarded marbles of rubber from the 80 tyres which have pounded the surface for an hour and a half.
This doesn’t happen at Spa, the longest track on the calendar, so cars are sent backwards up the pit lane immediately after the finish. While Russell pumped his fists in delight on his way to parc ferme, a defeated Hamilton said nothing over his radio.
“It was such a difficult race,” Russell said. “We spoke so much this morning about the two-stop, the three-stop. But suddenly the tyres, the car felt really, really good.
Hamilton had done almost everything he could have to earn the victory, all but find a way past his team mate at the end. Although happy to have been in a position to secure a one-two for his team, Hamilton’s disappointment at his team mate out-foxing him – and getting the chance to to begin with – was evident.
“George did a fantastic job today,” Hamilton conceded. “A fantastic effort to go the one-stop.
“It was pretty smooth sailing, to be honest. I was fully in control. I had plenty of pace and tyres and just didn’t end up as planned.”
Piastri’s unrivalled pace at the end of the race had not been enough for him to find a way by the Mercedes at the death. But on a day when Mercedes showed how strong they still were, Piastri was satisfied with his efforts.
“I think we executed a great race, had a quick car and ultimately just didn’t put it in the right position in qualifying yesterday,” he said. “Given where we started, very happy. But, ultimately, I think there was a bit more potential this weekend.”
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Leclerc’s fourth place in what was likely the fourth-fastest car of the weekend was an excellent achievement – as was Verstappen’s climb to fifth place from 11th. Norris was naturally displeased to have fallen two places to sixth, with Sainz in seventh a reasonable result and Perez dropping from second to eighth anything but. Fernando Alonso also successfully executed a one-stop to claim ninth, while Esteban Ocon showed Hamilton and Piastri how it was supposed to be done by catching and passing Daniel Ricciardo for the final point in the closing laps.
Just like Hamilton in 2008, Russell learned two hours after taking the chequered flag that all that effort in pursuit of a hard-earned triumph may about to come to nothing. At 6:48pm, the inevitable became official. Stewards’ document number 44 of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend confirmed the formal disqualification of Russell for his car failing to reach the minimum weight limit – meaning that car number 44 was now the winner.
Russell’s victory and Mercedes’ one-two were no more. While Mercedes at least kept the win with Hamilton, it was a cruel blow, reducing one of the most impressive tactical moves of the season to a footnote. Piastri was promoted to second, while Leclerc gained a podium finish as reward for his own impressive efforts.
For Hamilton, his 105th grand prix victory, and second in three rounds, was the first of his career he had inherited hours after the race had ended – as well as the first post-race disqualification of a winner in three decades. But although he never would have wanted his team mate to be sacrificed for it, at least Hamilton could feel as though he had been returned that win he had lost all those years ago.
2024 Belgian Grand Prix
- Belgian GP was “still a win” for Russell despite disqualification
- High plank wear also a factor in Russell’s disqualification, say Mercedes
- Russell is sixth F1 driver to be disqualified after winning a grand prix
- Unheard radio shows why Hamilton missed Russell’s (almost) race-winning strategy
- 2024 Belgian Grand Prix weekend F1 driver ratings
F1 race reviews
- Norris achieves feat which eluded Hamilton by taking McLaren to constructors’ title
- Verstappen masters race track and rule book with satisfying Qatar victory
- Russell strikes gold in Vegas as Verstappen’s title comes at a canter
- Verstappen counters critics with champion’s drive in soaking Sao Paulo
- Sainz seizes swansong Ferrari win as Perez endures home race horror show
DaveW (@dmw)
29th July 2024, 8:23
Beating Norris soundly was a good answer by Piastri to the asterisk on his Hungary win
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
29th July 2024, 8:49
Norris is way too emotional. He’s not winning enough races to win any Drivers title, until he gets better control of himself.
Doh
29th July 2024, 12:08
Of course he is overall beating piastri but I kinda see you point. I thought it could be on fit the title if mclaren and mercedes stay 1st and 2nd best on but actually it’s more likely for max to finish consistent 4th or 5th than it is for lando to consistently win..
Still supper competative though, great that we don’t know who will or even could win every weekend now.
Mayrton
30th July 2024, 7:43
Yes! that’s the nice part. Really do not know who is going to win the coming 10 races. And moreover I think 2025 will be a full year of that. To think everyone in the UK was screaming and ranting about the dominance of Red Bull. Luckily it lasted only 2 seasons which is nothing compared to the 8 years Mercedes before that (when we conveniently didn’t hear any of them). We are in a much better situation now.. until 2026 it is then, unfortunately.
Doh
30th July 2024, 12:03
TBF mercedes era wasn’t that bad compared to about 21 months of this redbull dominance. 2020 was really dominant and 2015 the title battle fizzled outm but 2014 16 and 21 were great the first two thirds of 17 and 18 were great too with a real back and forth title battle untill Ferrari/seb couldn’t maintain it. The rest of those two seasons still had a good bit of variance and 2019 was a bit like this season.
Mayrton
3rd August 2024, 10:56
I guess it depends on how you look at it. I saw Mercedes win all 8 years straight in a row (7 wrt the WDC). Seems unparalleled to me in F1’s history. Sure there was some opposition in 2017/2018 from Vettel but other from that it was a slam dunk and easy 1-2 in the WDC.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
29th July 2024, 13:46
Agree. Piastri seems a lot cooler inside the cockpit. Norris better start worrying: he cannot continue making those little but significant mistakes with a guy like Oscar at the other side of the garage, now with the confidence of a grand prix winner.
sam
29th July 2024, 17:02
He is interesting. Looks like he has quite a future. I’m a fan.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
29th July 2024, 8:49
I understand how this fits into the article’s narrative, but it’s just plain wrong. The increasingly interventionist tendency of the stewards was well-established by 2008, such that Hamilton’s penalty, when it came, wasn’t exactly a surprise (however unjustified it seemed to many at the time).
For example, two years earlier, we’d had the title battle between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher marred by a series of contentious stewards’ decisions, culminating in Alonso being penalised at Monza for the grievous crime of driving some way up the road from another car (see also Australia 2024).
I think it was probably the invention of the drive-through penalty in around 2001-2 that marked the start of the shift. Juan Pablo Montoya was an early victim, picking up penalties for being hit by a Ferrari, both in Malaysia 2002 and USA 2003.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
29th July 2024, 8:52
The 2008 Spa penalty was a massive surprise. Virtually every commentator at the time, stated they’d not come across a driver ever been penalised for that incident.
It wasn’t the start of the interventions, but it was definitely the start of the intervening on incidents that previously wouldn’t have been judged.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th July 2024, 9:30
It was also a very harsh penalty, there’s other penalties they could’ve given nowadays that wouldn’t have dropped him behind massa.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
29th July 2024, 12:07
If it weren’t for this race, nobody would have leveled * threats at Timo for running slicks in the rain.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
29th July 2024, 12:21
There was an analogous incident at Suzuka in 2005, where Alonso (for it was he) passed Christian Klien off-track, returned the position, but was judged to not have sufficiently returned the advantage gained. He had to let Klien through a second time. For obvious reasons that option wasn’t available to Hamilton at Spa, but it’s wrong to suggest that the stewards getting involved in similar incidents was without precedent.
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 12:44
@red-andy Yes, because Raikkonen re-passed Hamilton and then crashed out before Hamilton could be told to return the position. I agree that today a 5-second penalty would probably be given as a more appropriate time penalty and also not affecting the race outcome. But Raikkonen also had various advantages (gaining time off track, maybe passing under double yellows) which, I’d hope, the stewards today would recognize and basically respond to by making no intervention at all. It’s far better that if issues are resolved on track, in effect, then they stay out of it altogether.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
29th July 2024, 15:58
Yeah, I tend to think that in this era of greater transparency from the stewards (with them giving written reasons for their decisions) and more recent precedents, if that incident had occurred today it would probably have been “no further action,” or at most a small time penalty with no bearing on the overall result. But back then we were used to the stewards making significant and race-altering decisions for poorly explored reasons (to bring things back to my main point).
slowmo (@slowmo)
30th July 2024, 0:16
I’m pretty sure there was also no definition of what giving the advantage actually meant which was a big issue as the rules should never have grey areas that allow for “interpretation” as that introduces inconsistency.
jhg103 (@joshgeake)
29th July 2024, 14:23
Nah, I remember watching it at the time and laughing that he immediately overtook at the following corner. He was begging for a punishment.
Leo B
29th July 2024, 10:36
Lewis was his own worst enemy at spa 2008.
When you cut a chicane you give the place back. You don’t do that while slipping into your rival’s slip stream straight away which would be wrong. You leave a car’s length at very least and you try again at the next passing point. He was just too hot headed and inexperienced, chasing the most cool headed driver at that time.
Craig
29th July 2024, 10:40
A cool headed driver who then spun of his own accord after retaking the position, which rendered the reasoning for giving Hamilton a penalty entirely moot.
matt90
29th July 2024, 11:18
Exactly. Even if you thought Hamilton didn’t give the place back sufficiently straight away (he probably wouldn’t have by today’s rules but those definitely weren’t explicit at the time), Raikkonen was comfortably ahead at other points in the next lap and eventually crashed without Hamilton close, so it’s hard to argue that the on-track result was impacted by the chicane cut at all. Hamilton had effectively more completely if unintentionally ceded the position to Raikkonen.
If Raikkonen had stayed stuck behind from the moment Hamilton re-passed or even if he’d crashed pushing to try and re-pass then the penalty would have been far more justifiable (although still far too high, but I don’t think 5s penalties existed in 2008).
Craig
29th July 2024, 14:03
I can’t remember when 5 second penalties were introduced (2010s at some stage I think) but they weren’t used in 2008.
MichaelN
29th July 2024, 12:01
The whole thing was a mess. Both went off multiple times. Same with the Kubica v Massa scrap a few weeks later at Fuji.
Doh
29th July 2024, 12:29
I think we would see a lot more of those scenarios if both the cars were lighter and the tyres didn’t need to be managed as much. Both would mean they’d be driving on the limit further.
I believe that is because a heavier car needs “guided” into a corner, whereas a light car can be thrown into a corner and often that may be the faster way.
Add to that the shorter wheels base and narrower car width making the cars a bit more skittish, it might be no surprise the drivers of today make less mistakes.
Doh
29th July 2024, 12:09
You say that but it’s essentially what max was trying to do in Jeddah back in 2021. They all do it
liongalahad (@liongalahad)
29th July 2024, 13:10
The thing that really made it unfair was that the team specifically asked Charlie Whiting if Lewis’s manouver was OK, to which he replied “yes”. If he said “no”, they would have given the place back and Lewis would have won the GP. That alone should have been a good enough reaon not to give the penalty. I am thoroughly convicned the FIA really tried to get McLaren to lose the WDC after the 2007 spygate, Hamilton was handed so many penalties, most of which unfair, on that year, Spa being the worst one.
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 13:32
@liongalahad Exactly. There’s a whole load of other stuff from that year, all revolving around undue Ferrari influence. That only really vanished with Liberty taking over.
Leo B
29th July 2024, 14:13
I think Red Andy knew exactly what he was doing when he opened this topic for discussion. It always is lengthy.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
29th July 2024, 15:59
Not really, the ensuing discussion is at best tangential to my main point, which is that by 2008 we were well used to the idea that the stewards could and would intervene forcefully at the slightest provocation.
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 17:04
@red-andy There’s some quote from Ecclestone that he and Mosely, maybe, kind of worked to balance the UK-centric forces of Formula 1 by ensuring Ferrari, the only non-UUK based team, had special status and, well, the stewards weren’t ‘immune’ to that rebalancing pressure to put it one way. So you’re right this predates 2008 and, like I suggested above, probably lasted in various forms until Liberty took over (and arguably both Mercedes and especially Red Bull have benefitted a bit for commercial reasons – i.e. F1 promotion).
Ruben
29th July 2024, 9:22
Oooh, so now it’s fate because someone made a mistake. Ok.
MichaelN
29th July 2024, 9:54
Well, he is blessed.
André
29th July 2024, 14:11
The Silverstone win made me wonder, though. That was pretty epic.
An Sionnach
29th July 2024, 9:54
25-second hammer blow?
Ajaxn
29th July 2024, 12:22
Yep, that’s about the size of it.
Had Hamilton stopped once, he would have been 25 seconds ahead of Russell.
Russell stopped a 2nd time, he would have been down in 7th or worse, but he would have had points.
Osnola
29th July 2024, 16:29
Would have could have… he was unable to pass a car with completely worn tires. He made a lot of small nustakes during those last laps, resulting in his second place.
Russell deserved the win on merit. Hamilton was gifted a win.
Applebook
29th July 2024, 18:39
Not being able to pass an illegal car that was comfortably lighter isn’t that much of an indictment on Lewis. What “mistakes” did he make?
I didn’t see Max breezing past slower cars either once he caught up to the top 7.
grat
29th July 2024, 18:59
A car that weight 1.5kg less than it should have. That’s a bit of lap time there, and Hamilton almost certainly would have completed the pass on lap 42.
MadMax (@madmax)
29th July 2024, 19:21
once again your hate makes you deny reality. lol
MadMax (@madmax)
29th July 2024, 19:21
@ our alonso-fan ofc
Moi
29th July 2024, 9:57
Poor Russel, he thoroughly deserved the win by making that strategy call.
ben
29th July 2024, 10:23
I’ve seen this kind of comment a few times and I couldn’t disagree more. His strategy is the reason he was disqualified. The 1 stop wasn’t on for Mercedes due to the weight loss from the tyres. Had he stuck to the 2 stop he would have finished P5.
I think people need to get over the fact he “won” he didn’t. He came last. It’s like a driver not pitting at all, crossing the line first and everyone praising him for it, it’s daft.
notagrumpyfan
29th July 2024, 11:52
Still ‘poor Russell’ though.
He didn’t know that the car wasn’t set-up weight wise to cover such a long stint.
And the 0.05s he gained per lap due to the underweight is hardly what made the difference in his tyre management and defence.
Well done by Russell; poor management by Mercedes; and, unacceptable behaviour by Mercedes by appearing to try to cover it up.
N
29th July 2024, 12:16
“And the 0.05s he gained per lap due to the underweight is hardly what made the difference in his tyre management and defence.”
That’s 2 seconds over the race distance which would have put him around Piastri had he managed the stint accordingly
notagrumpyfan
29th July 2024, 12:54
You are one of those fans who still believes a race is raced as a time trial without overtakes!
JeroenJ
29th July 2024, 13:20
He probably wouldn’t even have gained 0.05s per lap as it was due to losing rubber from his tires so he gradually reached the 1.5kg only by the end of the race.
André
29th July 2024, 14:13
Yep, good point.
Applebook
29th July 2024, 18:41
So you falsely believe that cars are on margins so fine that they all JUST scrape by within 1 gram of the weight limit? If Russell is 1.5kg underweight, then he was at least 2kg lighter than all the other cars for a lot of his final stint.
mystic one (@mysticus)
29th July 2024, 20:30
the limit is dry weight = without fuel including tyres! they and others probably calculate some margin as there is no other reason and explanation to pick up rubber at the end of each races other than gaining a bit of weight to cover off this little underweight shenanigans! i bet all teams are this much underweight as there is no way they ask drivers to pick up rubber otherwise whole race wouldnt asked to avoid picking up dirt! also how does horner know over a kg of loss on tyres during practice? how does he know people use a bit of fuel as a ballast.
great miscalculation, and bad management of team dynamic in the end!
ham was undercut at first pit. he was 8 sec ahead, and after pit stop it was 5! also second pit stop he was almost 10 sec ahead and was going faster and increasing the gap to russel. either was russel too slow, or he was given a different target and strategy to lewis who was not informed of. i have no doubt that if lewis knew russel was 1 stopper, and he was 2, he would stomp on it more to give better buffer to himself to have enough performance delta when needed to overtake! ham was not told purposely i think, and you could tell from toto’s face at the end of the race!
Philip (@philipgb)
29th July 2024, 20:44
But for the car to finish legally on this strategy it would have needed at least 1.5kg of extra ballast from the start so the car would need that performance penalty for the entire race to be able to pull off this strategy while remaining legal
Doh
29th July 2024, 12:13
I think an interesting thing to note is that not only would he have gained a little per lap being underweight, his tyres would have gotten less punishment with the lower. Again it’s a very small amount but enough over a stint to wear out the tyres further, which maybe have allowed Lewis to catch faster to have an extra lap to try pass. Plus being a tenth or half a tenth closer can make the difference with drs
AlanD
29th July 2024, 13:44
Ben, I agree, he won driving an illegal car with an advantage over the legal cars. Russell didn’t do that intentionally, and it was only a small advantage, but nevertheless it wasn’t legal. Was that advantage enough to keep him ahead of Hamilton or was it down to skill? We’ll never know.
Applebook
29th July 2024, 18:43
Skill has a lot to do with it. Even though the car was slightly illegal, it was still immensely impressive for George to get the drive out of the final and the first corners like he did. There is no shame for him. The shame is on his engineers.
mystic one (@mysticus)
29th July 2024, 20:37
@Applebook
skill has something to do with it but i bet there was more sinister things done behind doors. ham was undercut in first pit stop. he was 8 sec ahead i believe, and after he was undercut, gap to russel was 5 sec! then next 15-16 laps ham increased the gap to 10, i believe he could go above that if he was told he was 2 stopper and russel was doing 1! i have no doubt ham would have covered it off even in the second stint, he asked if he needed to increase pace or not to be safe, and he wasnt given any useful info! only to find he has to race russel in the end like 2-3 laps before the end! he didnt have much time or laps left to do anything meaningful also he didnt even attack at all after all that nonsense management
Patrick (@paeschli)
29th July 2024, 19:02
Russel would have been fine if there was a full cool down lap instead of straight into the pits. He would have picked up enough marbles to be ankle the necessary weight.
This whole « he was driving an illegal car » is straight up nonsense.
Patrick (@paeschli)
29th July 2024, 19:02
*above
Ajaxn
29th July 2024, 12:26
Poor George, he couldn’t do it on his driving, so tried to pince it on strategy, even then it needed an offset strategy call for Lewis who was clearly the better driver.
Poor George for choosing Spa to reveal how he rolls.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
29th July 2024, 12:40
why the hate for George? He’s a fast driver, a fair competitor and apparently a great guy, not sure why so many people enjoy that he lost the race this way… He achieved a great result yesterday, drove an amazing race given his starting position, don’t make it sound like he’s a cheater.
AlanD
29th July 2024, 13:51
I agree we shouldn’t make it sound like cheating. The drivers can only drive the machinery they are given and he drove it to the best of his ability. No-one could have asked for more from him, and it led to a very good race. It is unfortunate that his drive was invalid, but there was nothing underhand about it. The bigger question should be why the pit wall didn’t work out that the tyre wear would lead to a weight issue and order a pit stop for fresh softs towards the end of the race, to try to salvage some points. With hindsight, looking at the expressions of Toto etc when the race finished, I wonder if they knew they had a problem and were winging it. If they decided to “accidentally” leave a bit of fuel in the car, to bring it up to weight, that would be cheating, but again that is not a reflection on Russell in any way.
Patrick (@paeschli)
29th July 2024, 19:04
I interpreted Toto’s poker face as « I’ll have to explain to Hamilton why we bottled his strategy ».
Lucky for him, the stewards and the particular track layout (straight into the pits) helped him out on this one.
Ajaxn
29th July 2024, 10:14
Its fate, when both drivers wanted to be on a one-stop, both had discussed this in team briefing going into the race,
but then Mercedes decided mid race to have Hamilton cover another driver with that second stop.
Mercedes dodged a bullet, as both drivers might have been disqualified. As for the stewards, they would have been scratching their heads, as we all were. How did the driver starting 6th end up in 1st, was it all legit?
Now if only George had gone offline to seek out the marbles, he might still have managed a podium.
MadMax (@madmax)
29th July 2024, 11:06
Both were set up on a two stop race from the beginning. And this obviously was their plan, until RUS brought the one stop up.
Looked like a good decision, but it wasnt. Tough luck, like e.g. the DSQ for excessive plank wear for HAM in the US.
AlanD
29th July 2024, 13:54
“Now if only George had gone offline to seek out the marbles, he might still have managed a podium.”
Ajaxn, because Spa is such a long lap, they go into Parc Ferme at the end of the main straight. They don’t have a cool down lap where they can pick up marbles. If George had gone off line to pick up marbles on the last racing lap, Hamilton would have been past him.
Ajaxn
29th July 2024, 15:35
I know that. I was thinking as the two raced for the 1 / 2.
Someone should have had the sense to tell George he needes to pick up those marbles.
AlanD
29th July 2024, 17:04
Ajaxn, if he’d run over the marbles during racing laps, he’d have had absolutely no chance of keeping the others behind. Apart from having to go off the racing line and leaving the door open for Hamilton to dive through, once the tyres get marbles stuck to them, they lose all grip, and it takes a lap at racing speeds to throw them off again before you get back to previous grip levels. It just wasn’t an option for him.
Robert (@rob8k)
29th July 2024, 10:46
Out of curiosity, I take the minimum weight of 798kg must be adhered to throughout the race. So a car at the start of the race (minus fuel) would still be over 800 and weight would decrease as the tyre wore down but still have to be above 798. I was wondering then if picking up marbles caused a car to weigh say 798 exactly, wouldn’t that make the car theoretically illegal as it was running underweight at the end of the race.
Derek Edwards
29th July 2024, 11:02
That’s exactly what I was wondering. Didn’t Brabham (with Bernie in charge, of course) once, maybe around 1981, have a car that could be lowered out on the track but raised when it came into the pits to have its minimum ride height checked? That way, it was legal whenever it was measured…
Tommy Scragend
29th July 2024, 13:17
Also the “water cooled brakes” of 1982 – the cars of the FOCA teams carried tanks full of water which was supposed to be used for cooling the brakes (which was a load of rubbish). They dumped this water early on in the race and ran underweight from then on, but the teams were allowed to refill fluids at the end before the cars were weighed. Renault protested against Brabham and Williams for doing this and they were disqualified. They appealed but lost (the cars that were also doing it but finished behind the Renaults weren’t protested so they got away with it).
AlanD
29th July 2024, 14:06
Robert, I think there aere other scenarios too, such as if Russell had built up a huge lead, pitted on the last lap for fresh tyres, then there is no way of knowing if the car was underweight or not on those previous tyres. But to be honest, I don’t think cars generally sail that close to the wind any more and picking up the marbles doesn’t seem to be the big issue that it once was. The current tyres are smaller than the monsters we saw in the past and they are more durable. We no longer see teams running four sets of fast-degrading super softs during the race, so they probably don’t throw off that much rubber in normal conditions anyway. I think the current cars are also so heavy that it is actually quite difficult to get them down to the minimum weight. A reason for increasing the min weight in recent years is so that larger-build drivers are at less of a disadvantage.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
29th July 2024, 11:39
While do think think that Hamilton drove beautifully and was the better driver over the whole weekend I wont considered it “his win” he rightfully deserved and was deprived of only by some higher mystical power with fate having to intervene in the name of justice.
Russell made a brilliant call in a time we hardly see engineers and computers outsmarted by a driver’s gut feelings so it was very refreshing to see. It was just unfortunate that it happened at Spa. At any other track he could have picked up rubber. The simulations should have shown that, but Mercedes went obviously marginal on ballast and/or the other one stopping teams are still overweight.
Doh
29th July 2024, 12:18
Isn’t there enough rubber to be picked up by going off line at turn1 and even a long loop onto the runoff? Especially since George would have been the first one there
AlanD
29th July 2024, 14:16
No, at Spa the lap is so long that they don’t do a cool down lap. The race director’s notes say “At the end of both races after taking the chequered flag, cars should progressively slow down, and must leave the track on the right at the exit of Turn 1 to enter the endurance pit lane immediately.” i.e. they go straight to parc ferme.
Doh
30th July 2024, 12:05
It’s only 1km longer than Baku.
N
29th July 2024, 12:20
“I wont considered it “his win” he rightfully deserved and was deprived of only by some higher mystical power with fate having to intervene in the name of justice.”
I will.
The car was illegal, there was a miscalculation, just like Hamiltons plank wear DQ in Austin. Imagine congratulating someone one winning a race by doing 0 stops, sure impressive, but you know, against the rules, and then not thinking the guy in 2nd who did do the required tire change stop wasn’t the rightful winner.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
29th July 2024, 12:38
If course the DQ is a no-brainer. You’re free to call it fate or justice whatever, I’d call it racing.
N
29th July 2024, 15:16
I don’t wanna use terms like fate or justice, i’m just looking at the facts, the first driver who completed the race with a legal car was Hamilton, so, he’s the rightful winner.
AlanD
29th July 2024, 14:08
“Imagine congratulating someone one winning a race by doing 0 stops”
That’s a great example that illustrates the point well.
Patrick (@paeschli)
29th July 2024, 19:07
Crazy how picking up marbles would have suddenly made his car legal though
N
29th July 2024, 20:11
Pretty sure they don’t pick up 1.5kg of rubber generally, there’s more too it than just the tires, possibly ballast issue
Philip (@philipgb)
29th July 2024, 20:51
I’m sure someone smarter than me can do the maths based upon tire surface area but I wouldn’t at all be surprised if they can collect around 400g or more of rubber per wheel when you see how much extra looks tacked on their when they do
Basically a block of butter spread over the entire surface of each tire wouldn’t be all that much
N
29th July 2024, 21:26
Possibly, but Merc themselves so far have only said rubber pickup is a ‘contributing factor’, there must be more to it than just that, they would know for sure already if that’s all it was.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
29th July 2024, 13:22
It’s not like there are 2,000 choices and he picked 1 out of them. His choice was to pit and fight for position on track or go long and hope for the best. The best turned out to be P1 + disqualification so it was only a brilliant call until he was disqualified at which point, it was a horrible call.
For Mercedes, it was a horrible call because they put Russell right in front of Hamilton who was winning the race. Imagine Red Bull putting Perez in front of Verstappen at Zandvoort (all of a sudden using fewer stops) and Max losing the race.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
29th July 2024, 14:21
And yet not a single driver pushed for the one stopper like Russell did because no one else believed it was the better strategy. Maybe Hamilton did, but he wasn’t particularly vocal about it. The call also has absolutely nothing to do with the DQ so I don’t know why you even mention it in the same sentence. It’s down to Mercedes to make sure that a car complies with the regulations regardless the wear of the tires. But again it wasn’t the call itself that was horrible, it was “horrible” that their simulation did not take all factors into consideration.
Regarding the intra team battle: Different strategies are part of the game and interesting to watch. Most of the time the preselected strategy is better, this time it wasn’t. That’s racing. And we should be thankful that some teams let their drivers race. Ferrari did it in Japan, Mercedes did it last year in Suzuka too and countless of other times when especially Hamilton had better tire wear than his teammates and could go long. Where is the difference in doing a stop less?
Every team (maybe with the exception of Redbull) look for what is best for each of their drivers and not only for their driver that is ahead on track.
So we had a great race between two great drivers. Hamilton was faster, but Russell, made the better call.
Regarding your last paragraph: Fortunately Mercedes isn’t Redbull and Russell isn’t Perez. Also, no one is really fighting for the title so no need for team orders. But funnily enough last year Perez made a great call himself to pit and undercut Verstappen and Red Bull allowed it to happen. This took place… at Zandvoort :)
AlanD
29th July 2024, 14:32
I think something to consider is that Hamilton said the tyres still felt good when they told him to pit to cover off LeClerc. As soon as those tyres came off the car, the tyre specialist would have been looking at them to see how much wear there had been. When Russell later repeated the same message as Hamilton, the team at that stage had the info to know the tyres were lasting longer than they expected and he could afford to stay out. I don’t think Mercedes chose to give Russell a better strategy or whatever, just that the timings of the stops gave them more info to be able to agree with the driver at the second instance.
It is interesting thinking back to last weekend. Piastri was leading Norris, pit calls put Norris ahead of Piastri, and the overwhelming majority on here said the team were right to order the drivers to swap back as Piastri had earned the win. I disagreed with that use of team orders, and most team orders in fact. How would that have been different from yesterday, when Hamilton was even more convincingly the faster of the two drivers, had “earned” the win, but pit stop strategy calls by the team put him behind Russell through no fault of his own.
MichaelN
29th July 2024, 15:42
It’s an interesting one; but the key difference is probably that in the case of the Hungarian GP – McLaren called all four stops, whereas in the Belgian GP Mercedes called only three, and it was Russell himself who declined the 4th.
And Mercedes isn’t really in with a chance of the title anyway, so it’s less contentious an issue. Norris, while far back, only had to make up the difference between 1st and 2nd in terms of points each race (slightly more, but rounded down). It’s very much a theoretical case, especially given Norris’ run of losing races he could/should have won, but as we heard on the radio, it was at least on Norris’ and the McLaren pitwall’s mind.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
29th July 2024, 15:47
I think the difference is that in Hungary the two McLaren drivers were on the same strategy with only a lap or two difference in terms of their pit stops. Norris got ahead of Piastri because they gave him the undercut for some reason, but ultimately they had run the same strategy and therefore the team orders favoured the guy who would have been ahead but for the team’s weird decision on pit stop timing.
At Spa the two Mercedes drivers were running different strategies. It was therefore a legitimate “race” between the two of them, with the winner being the one with the best strategy (and associated things like tyre management etc). Asking the two drivers to swap round would have been pre-judging the outcome of that strategic battle. That being said, it might still have been justified (e.g. if the team judged that the risk of Piastri catching and passing both of them made a swap a good idea), but I think there is a distinction between the situations in each race.
Talby (@maichael)
29th July 2024, 11:56
“I’d like to have two winners today…” – Wolff in a Sky Sports interview post race.
Ajaxn
29th July 2024, 12:19
“There can only be one” – to quote Highlander.
Lewis is all set to go after 5th or 4th in the Championship. That start by Lewis earned him this win. we should be talking about that, instead of ‘poor George’.
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 12:38
Nice write up. Not sure they’re equivalent though. What was most galling about Spa 2008 was that the wild duel between Hamilton and Raikkonen – basically everyone was fighting to stay on track in the driving rain – was resolved by them and needed no steward intervention. Raikkonen also had his own share of ‘advantages’ – including spinning off and using a long stretch of more abrasive off-track tarmac to accelerate faster than on track and regain the lead! — before eventually crashing out. It was exciting driving from both and the young, brilliantly talented Hamilton, also superb in the rain at Silverstone 2008, simply won by controlling his car at a higher level of skill. It was an astounding victory, wrecked by dubious stewarding (an era when Ferrari had much more influence), and handed to the completely undeserving Massa, way behind on track as he couldn’t keep up with either on a wet track – as we had also seen at Silverstone.
By contrast, Hamilton drove a perfect race yesterday at Spa, qualifying third, passing Pérez at the start (despite the latter’s now traditional jink towards Hamilton threatening collision) and then somehow passing Leclerc in a car with basically the same available speed. Russell made a brilliant call but he was also able to gamble because other drivers in the top bunch had already pitted and committed to the 2-stop. He had nothing to lose. However he did make the call when other drivers could have done the same.
The awkward bit for Mercedes is that Hamilton was only later told his team mate was actually on an unplanned two stop. That’s the bit that left him so subdued after the race, a fact hinted at in interview. It felt like this was the first race where Mercedes really tipped towards Russell as their driver and Hamilton the outsider on his way to Ferrari.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
29th July 2024, 13:48
I agree, it’s definitely a watershed moment in the relationship between Lewis and Mercedes. Imagine for a moment Red Bull doing that to Verstappen or god forbid that happening to Alonso as he’s trying to win another race (it’s such a shame he hasn’t had the chance to win one for while). I think Alonso would die on the spot from a heart attack and understandably so…
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 14:27
@freelittlebirds It’s a complicated dynamic and it felt like there was an emotional undercurrent in Russell’s elation and the jubilation of the team, Hamilton looking kind of dejected and isolated, Wolff trying to tread a thin line with a carefully weighed half-smile as the camera panned to him immediately after the race. Other complications (specifically for Hamilton) are that he’s finally feeling that the car is good to drive, and Mercedes are back near the front, just as they’re entering the break, knowing that the second half of the season is going to be his ‘phase out’ time, as the team justifiably leaves him in the dark more about car development for 2025. At the same time, he’s very likely to be the faster driver. Also he’s the highest scoring driver the past 4 races – if this pace continued for the second half (it won’t I guess) then he’d actually be closing in on Verstappen himself in the WDC. All set up for some great racing anyhow after the break, can’t wait.
CP
29th July 2024, 13:19
The real argument should have been the information being fed to Lewis as an “equal” teammate. Once they decided Russell was on a one stop, surely this should have been fed to Lewis so he could have attacked earlier and more aggressively (being also hopefully informed that tyre deg was lower than expected).
Karma won as Merc went out of their way to sabotage, internationally or not, Lewis and prop up George (understandable given Lewis is departing.
A shame as this was a 1 (Lewis) and p3/P4 for George rather than 0.
George is not the driver Lewis is, the quicker Merc play to their strengths the better they will perform.
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 13:36
Hamilton was faster – is faster overall (still)) – but I think George made an excellent strategy call for himself and the team. It deserved a podium. However, Hamilton deserved to know that call had been made. Another question is, had this been during the Rosberg or Bottas era, mid-season say when they were still in the title fight with LH, would they have allowed the split strategy? Unlikely. Yet allowing GR to do a one-stop made sense in terms of team points. Tricky.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
29th July 2024, 14:05
yeah, this felt like Mercedes pulling the rug from under Lewis. At a moment when Lewis thought he would win the race amidst a 3-year drought, he ended up looking bad as even with DRS he wasn’t making any ground on the other Mercedes and George was celebrating his victory which he was entitled to but it also had the effect of rubbing it in.
Thank god, it didn’t happen at Silverstone… I don’t think Lewis would have recovered from that one especially without a disqualification.
They still have 10 races to go and while Mercedes is in total control of P4 in the WCC, I’m pretty sure they’d much rather end up in P3 or close to P2.
AlanD
29th July 2024, 14:37
“I think George made an excellent strategy call for himself”
I’m not sure that’s entirely true. Team tells LH to box, LH says tyres still feel good, but team says box anyway. Team gets tyres off LH’s car, inspect them, decide they still have a lot of rubber left. A couple of laps later, GR also says tyres can still go long, team has more info and agrees with him. If they hadn’t had the info from LH’s tyres, if they’d boxed GR first, we might have had a complete reversal, with LH doing the one stop and it being spun as making the call himself.
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 14:54
Sounds plausible.
SteveP
29th July 2024, 22:00
Until you hear the radio message from George to the pit about considering the one-stop, pretty much exactly as Lewis has been called in to pit and thus giving George track position.
I think if George had been ordered to surrender the place when Lewis caught him, then he would have done what Lando didn’t and hung on to the position. All George saw was the removal of the only obstacle to “his” win.
It was a few laps later that George was asked to confirm that he definitely wanted to go with the single stop (he did so very rapidly), and probably around that time the team had calculated that the tyre wear would make the situation marginal at race end.
From the team viewpoint, that was probably where GR could stop and still make a podium, and after that they would drop more and more places.
Anon A. Mouse
29th July 2024, 21:16
The usual M.O. from Mercedes is to digest that information then give feedback on how to drive the rest of the stint. For example they’ll inform the driver how tire wear was in the previous stint or how it looks for a particular tire, then give the driver some target times or areas where they can drop tire management. If Russell would have pitted, he would have been told that the Hards can be leaned on more than previously expected and he would have been freer to push.
Mercedes is risk averse to completely changing strategy. People who watch onboards (at least for Hamilton) may have heard something to the effect of “we’re SAN mode 2” – that’s a strategy change. Shortening/extending the stint comes in the form of “target plus/minus X”. The team can’t force a driver to pit, they can only make the request as they aren’t in physical control of the car. I think Sunday was another example of George’s wanting to “do something different” when his race is languishing compared to the cars ahead. Much like the 2014-2020 years where RBR was in no man’s land as far as being able to catch Mercedes or being caught from behind, they could afford to go for a “hero” strategy that if it doesn’t work no big deal, but when it works they’re hailed as… well, heroes. Russell tried the same and it paid off up until the weight disqualification. There’s only so many times you can get away with being a one man strategy team before it bites.
Edvaldo
29th July 2024, 13:45
So he celebrated this win 16 years ago then lol. Does he even remember that?
AlanD
29th July 2024, 14:37
“I think George made an excellent strategy call for himself”
I’m not sure that’s entirely true. Team tells LH to box, LH says tyres still feel good, but team says box anyway. Team gets tyres off LH’s car, inspect them, decide they still have a lot of rubber left. A couple of laps later, GR also says tyres can still go long, team has more info and agrees with him. If they hadn’t had the info from LH’s tyres, if they’d boxed GR first, we might have had a complete reversal, with LH doing the one stop and it being spun as making the call himself.
AlanD
29th July 2024, 14:38
Ooops, double post
Janith
29th July 2024, 20:03
What about the stolen win HAM got from Vettel in 2019 Canadian GP after getting beat on track?
Janith
29th July 2024, 20:04
What about the stolen win HAM got from Vettel in 2019 Canadian GP after getting beat on track ?
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 20:16
The penalty was for unsafely reentering the track, almost causing a collision, standard penalty.
If you actually watched the race, Hamilton was pressurizing Vettel lap after lap until he finally forced the error. Seb should have allowed Lewis space on the right as the latter was still at racing speed.
Janith
30th July 2024, 12:39
I’m pretty sure Hamilton lost his Spa win because he went off track and gained an advantage trying to pass Raikkonen. What’s the difference? lol.
Philip (@philipgb)
29th July 2024, 20:59
Hamilton forced an error from Vettel where the only way he maintained position was incurring a penalty that rightly still cost him that position
SteveP
29th July 2024, 22:09
That would be the one where Vettel left the track and gained an advantage, and then rejoined unsafely.
Doubling up the penalties doesn’t actually cancel them out, you know.
All things done correctly and Vettel would have taken the WDC that year, unfortunately for his fans the occasions where the team didn’t muck things up for him were frequently matched with the occasions where Vettel mucked things up himself.
Janith
30th July 2024, 12:36
There was no championship battle in 2019
SteveP
30th July 2024, 20:12
Sorry, I was thinking of 2018 the year when the team and Vettel mucked up regularly while running with a rather powerful PU, 2019 was the year when people uncovered some, not all*, of the cheats Ferrari were doing with the PU. Things rather fell apart when RBR asked the FIA for “clarification” of the legality of a development they might use – basically their latest guess at how Ferrari were cheating on engine power.
Quite inventive, if totally illegal. I’ve repeatedly said that I’d like to see what Ferrari can do with that inventiveness applied to legal development, and I suspect they could be quite good.
*Anyone lifting the covers of that info given to the FIA on an NDA hush up deal would make a fortune publishing it, I’m sure everyone would find it interesting reading.
Tom
30th July 2024, 11:16
Is there a published list of weights of all car/driver anywhere?
Surely that would shed some light on matters.
SteveP
30th July 2024, 20:15
Driver plus seat and ballast = 80kg
End.
Tom
31st July 2024, 13:20
I meant a list of the weights of all cars and drivers at the end of the race.
I thought it’d be interesting to see if other drivers/cars were close to the limit also.
hyoko
30th July 2024, 15:00
If we are celebrating this why not give the 2005 Suzuka win to Fernando Alonso? This was a well-remembered win by Kimi but only after an excruciatingly arbitrary penalty ruined ALO’s race having to give back the position to Klein TWICE and losing an incredible amount of time in the process. And people say the 2008 Spa penalty was unprecedented, when the 2005 Suzuka was hugely more galling. But in a way the Spa penalty was a true shocker because it seemed by then that the subject was above all regulations and could get away with absolutely anything.
SteveP
30th July 2024, 20:19
I think the specific reg regarding hand back of the place to remove the advantage gained, was ratified a few races after 2008 Spa.
JMDan
30th July 2024, 16:56
I very much enjoyed this article.