Tag: formula-1

The Belgium Grand Prix

The Disqualification of George Russell

As the 2024 Belgium Grand Prix concluded it appeared to be a magical day for the Mercedes team. Their drivers George Russell finished first and Lewis Hamilton in second. Their first 1,2 finish for the season. Russell started in the race in 6th but with assistance of a one pit stop strategy he was able to win the race. Most drivers had at least two pit stop race.

Only hours later the celebrations had become subdued when it was revealed that George Russell had been disqualified for his car being underweight.

Each Formula 1 car needs to weigh at least 798kg. Russell’s Mercedes weighed 798kg after the race but once the remaining fuel was emptied from the car, the car weighed 796.5kg.

The FIA F1 Technical delegate released a report regarding the matter.

“As this is 1.5kg below the minimum weight requested in TR Article 4.1 which also has to be respected at all times during the competition, I am referring this matter to the stewards for their consideration” it said.

The stewards then disqualified Russel from the race.

Russel spoke with the F1 media after the race.

“It is heartbreaking to be disqualified for today’s race. It had been an unbelievable Grand Prix for us to make the one-stop strategy work” he said.

Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin believed one of the reasons the car came in underweight was due to the one stop strategy.

“We don’t understand yet why the car was underweight following the race but will investigate thoroughly to find the explanation. We expect the loss of rubber from the one stop was a contributing factor and we’ll work to understand how it happened.”

It wasn’t all heartbreak for the Mercedes team with Hamilton winning his second race in three races.

“I feel for George and you don’t want to win through disqualification, but we have been in the fight for victories in the past few races. It is incredibly competitive now, so we will need to work hard to battle for wins consistently.

“Nevertheless, we can go into the summer break with momentum and positivity” he said to F1 media.

Hamilton has been in the top 10 for every race this season apart for Australia where he didn’t finish. He has finished in the top four for the last six races.

Review of the Belgium Grand Prix Qualifying Part 1

Q1 and the first five eliminated

Sauber’s Guanyu Zhou and William’s Logan Sargeant have both struggled throughout the 2024 season and both haven’t recorded a top ten finish. Their miserable seasons continued with both drivers finishing 20th and 19th respectively. They are both expected to not be not on the grid in 2025.

They both will move up a position on the grid for Sunday’s race as RB’s Yuki Tsunoda will start from the back of the grid due to being handed a 60 grid penalty due to different infringements with the car. Each driver is allowed four internal combustion engine changes a season, this was Tsunoda’s fifth. Other infringements included having his third third energy store and a new set of electronics.

The two Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished in the 16th and 17th respectively.

Q2 and the next five eliminated

The weather can have a big impact on qualifying and an F1 race. It was drizzling at the start of Q2 but it got heavier half way through Q2 with all drivers going on the intermediates.

William’s Alex Albon missed out on the top ten by the tiniest of margins, only 0.003 seconds to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who finished in 10th. Perez has been under immense pressure to hold his spot for the remainder of the 2024 season and beyond.

As it was getting wetter at the Spa track, RB believed their driver Daniel Ricciardo had done enough to make Q3 and decided he that he didn’t need come out of the garage to do a final lap. This decision backfired and Ricciardo finished in 13th. Ricciardo spoke with the F1 media after qualifying about his teams decisions.

“Of course we’re all a little disappointed but it wasn’t a call that we’re all kicking ourselves over, it’s just the one we made and wasn’t the [right] one” he said.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly has had many peaks and troughs in the 2024 season. Struggling in the first seven races, only managing to finish 13th or lower. But the next four races were such an improvement finished in the top 10 in all four but the last two he has failed to finish. He will start the race in 12th and will hope for another top ten finish.

Like his teammate at Sauber, Valtteri Bottas hasn’t recorded a point this season. He will start the race in 14th and it will be an uphill battle to make the top 10.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll will start the race in 15th.

The British Grand Prix Review Part 1

It is a great time to be an English sports fan. George Russell wins the Austrian Grand Prix, the England men’s football team are in the Euro’s semi final and now seven time world champion Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton wins his first race win in 945 days. Hamilton’s ninth win at his home grand prix.

Mercedes had gone 56 races without a win but now have won two in a row. There has been six individual winners in the first twelve race of the 2024 season. In 2023 there was only three winners for the entire season.

The last pip stop defined the British Grand Prix

After 38 laps of the race McLaren’s Lando Norris was in the lead, Hamilton in second and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third. All three were still in contention to win the race. All three drivers were on the intermediate due to the mid section of the race being contested in the rain. As the rain disappeared and the sun came out, the track dried the track the drivers came into the pits to put on slicks.

Both Hamilton and Verstappen came in on lap 39 with Hamilton going on the soft and Verstappen going on the hard tyre. Norris came into the pit the next lap. As Norris came into the pitlane his team said over the radio the medium would be able to defend Verstappen and the soft would cover Hamilton. Norris chose the soft.

Norris’s pit stop was slower than expected with Norris locking up contributing to it. He came out behind Hamilton and Hamilton would go on to win and historic ninth British Grand Prix.

Speaking after the race to the media, Hamilton spoke about the excitement of winning his first grand prix of the season.

“Today means so much. It is the most incredible honour to be standing on the top step of the podium at Silverstone. I think my heart is still racing” he said to F1.com

For Norris he was still over six seconds clear of Verstappen but with Verstappen on the hard tyre and Norris on the soft he was able to catch Norris and pass him with ease, finishing the race in second position. Norris finished the race in third. After the race Norris spoke with the F1 media about the race.

“At the same time I blame myself for not making the right decisions. I hate it, I hate ending up in this position and having excuses for not doing a good enough job” he said.

But Norris also spoke during his press conferences about the positives of his home grand prix.

“This is the place I would love everything to go perfectly and it just didn’t happen today. But it is still lovely to be on the podium at Silverstone. We will come stronger, next race and next year.”

Norris is in second place in the championship, 84 points behinds behind Verstappen.

It is clear that Verstappen is no longer a super power in F1.

For Verstappen he struggled for pace throughout the British Grand Prix. After 14 laps of the race he was in third behind the two Mercedes but within three laps he was passed by both McLaren’s.

The next 10 laps the two Mercedes and McLaren’s would fight in a exhilarating battle for the top 4 positions but Verstappen was unable to keep up and sat almost 10 seconds behind George Russell in fourth when he came in for his first pit stop on lap 27.

With George Russell having to retire, and McLaren’s strategic error on a pit stop with Oscar Piastri’s car, Verstappen moved up to third. As we spoke about earlier Norris picked the wrong type of tyre on his last pit stop and the Red Bull team making the right decisions on their pit stops Verstappen was able to finish the race in second.

In a press conference after the race Verstappen spoke about the difficulties he had throughout the race.

“It was difficult today to manage especially with the rain, but looking at pure performance we were too slow in the first stint and overall struggled with tyre degradation” he said to F1.com.

“Out of a tough situation we still finished second and extended our championship leads, and that of course is a very strong result for us. We’re halfway through the season now and we still have a bit of work to do still to finish the season where we want to be.”