To say that the 2024 F1 Belgian Grand Prix was competitive is an understatement. In fact, it was the closest non-safety car finish between the podium honorees since 2016 because the winner and P3 were just separated by 1.173 seconds. Needless to say, it was a great run for Mercedes boss Toto Wolff because of how Lewis Hamilton and George Russell did until it wasn't.
Mercedes loses a 1-2 in the Belgian Grand Prix
George Russell was disqualified from the F1 Belgian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver's W15 had been 1.5 kilograms underweight. This gave him an unfair advantage in terms of acceleration and velocity over the other drivers at Spa-Francorchamps. This meant that he was stripped of his second win of the season. Effectively, Lewis Hamilton was then crowned as the victor with McLaren's Oscar Piastri coming in at second and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc moving up to the podium with a P3 finish.
Prior to the decision of the FIA to disqualify the young Mercedes driver, Toto Wolff already had a gut feeling of what was to come. The Silver Arrows boss outlined his feelings on it and even apologized to Russell, via F1.
“We have to take our disqualification on the chin, we have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it. We will go away, evaluate what happened, and understand what went wrong. To lose a one-two is frustrating. We can only apologize to George who drove such a strong race,” Wolff declared.
He then added that Mercedes plans to rise back to F1 dominance after the summer break.
“Despite the disqualification, there are many positives we can take from this weekend. We had a car that was the benchmark in today’s race across two different strategies. Only a few months ago, that would have been inconceivable. We head into the summer break having won three of the past four races. We will look to come back after shutdown rejuvenated and with the aim of maintaining our positive trajectory,” he concluded.
F1 standings so far
The expectation was for another year of Red Bull and Max Verstappen's dominance. However, other constructors were just not going to allow that to happen in 2024. While Christian Horner's squad still leads the World Constructors' Championship, McLaren is not far behind. The gap that the papayas need to close now just sits at 42 points. Not far behind, Ferrari is also at 345 points which means that Zak Brown's team is just ahead by 21.
The same thing cannot be said for the World Drivers' Championship. Despite the fall-off of the Red Bull, Max Verstappen still leads the race with 277 points due to his seven wins and nine podium finishes. Norris, however, is tracking him down as the McLaren driver sits at second with 199 points. Charles Leclerc is also just 22 points behind Norris.
It's a very fresh sight to see standings shift in F1 on a weekly basis. With the emergence of new fans, this sport is truly back and parity has never been this good.
Follow Us
Subscribe
