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George Russell failed to win the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend despite crossing the chequered flag in P1 as the FIA judged his car to be underweight after carrying out post-race checks. The FIA revealed that Russell’s car weighed 1.5 kg less than the required weight. Considering Lewis Hamilton’s conversation with his race engineer Peter Bonnington, it seems that the 39-year-old narrowly escaped the same fate that Russell faced at Spa.
The only reason that Hamilton did not suffer the same fate as Russell is because the team did not allow the 39-year-old to opt for a one-stop strategy like the former Williams driver did. As highlighted by RaceFans, Hamilton wanted to extend his stint on the hard tires and think about a one-stopper.
The seven-time champion took to his radio and said, “Tires feel good” on lap 24. Two laps later, he said the same thing on the radio but yet Mercedes called him in. However, when Russell suggested his engineer to opt for a one-stopper, the team interestingly allowed him to opt for such a strategy.
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Such a strategy helped Russell not only inherit the race lead from his Mercedes teammate Hamilton but also cross the chequered flag in P1. It was only after post-race checks that it was discovered that Russell’s car weighed less than the required amount.
Therefore, it is only in hindsight that Mercedes made a good decision not to allow Hamilton to go on a one-stopper. Had they done so, they could have risked having both cars disqualified from the race. Since Hamilton inherited the race win from Russell because of the 26-year-old’s misfortunes, he felt for his younger teammate.
Hamilton also added how he is happy to see the team back at the front now and believes that Mercedes is showing immense promise. Having won three of the past four races, the Silver Arrows will now look to build on this momentum after the summer break.
