2024 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa-Francorchamps, July 26 - 28

[CHT]

At SPA, the cars were sent directly back to the pit lane after finishing line, so there was no chance for GR to pick up rubbers on track to gain some weight.

[e30ernest]

At the end of the race, I thought it would be awful if George got DQ'd because he wore out too much of his tires causing him to go underweight. I woke up this morning to the news. Gutted for him...

George drove well. Sure it was a Hail Mary strat that got him the win, but Lewis still didn't make the pass despite the tire delta. While ending 1.5kg underweight, I still think George deserves the credit for his stellar drive.

That said, congrats to Lewis for another win. He also deserved the win by taking the lead early and managing the gap to Leclerc and later Piastri. It looks like he had pace in his pocket and didn't seem to push much at all the entire race up until he realized he needed to pass George on the track. Still a mega drive.

Piastri getting another podium was awesome. I do think McLaren (along with Red Bull) were the fastest today. Maybe with a better strategy, and if he didn't miss his marks during his last stop he could have gotten the victory. A bit of a what if...

Leclerc getting the final podium spot was awesome. It didn't look like he had the race pace but he was able to do enough to keep Verstappen and Norris behind him.

I honestly thought Verstappen was going to storm the field after his qualifying performance. I was surprised he only made it up to 4th. Still better than Norris though so he extended his lead successfully again.

Norris... While I don't think McLaren's strategy was the best, Norris did flub his start though and ended up losing places. This was a race where he had the car and the track position to close the gap to Max. Hopefully he and the team can use the summer break to reset and bounce back.

[Mosin123]

For anyone saying that Mercedes were cheating, this comment from an F1 mechanic on Reddit might be interesting:

Hijacking the top comment to answer a few questions from the OP and hopefully clear a few bits up. (Source, am F1 mechanic that travels to every race and goes to parc ferme after the race help the FIA weigh the cars)

On OP’s point 2 about ‘somehow it being discovered they improperly drained it’, this isn’t the case. What happens is the race finishes, all the cars park, drivers get out and get weighed while pit in the fans and get the cars on the skateboards. Then one by one all the cars are weighed. This is before any work has been done to them.

The reason they then drained the fuel from George’s car is because it was already at the minimum limit - meaning they knew it would be below once the fuel was out. Also the improper procedure thing reads to me like they drained the tank but not the collector, but then said well it’s obviously already going to be under to let’s not bother getting the rest out.

After qualifying the top 10 cars all get weighed (which means Merc should have had an idea he was pushing the limit, I’m not sure why they didn’t rectify this over night), then after the race all classified cars are weighed. Every week.

Source:https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comme ... ing_15_kg/

That is the question I wanted answering. Are they weighed after Qualifying.

Still, Merc didn't know they'd be doing most of the race on one set of tyres, so no need to worry at that point.
Assuming that it was because of the rubber, but it is quite feasible.

Still, and the end of the race, they knew damn well they were going to try and get away with it. At least some in the team were aware, I have a feeling that Toto didn't know at that point.

That was the race plan for LH, so they must have had an idea about wear. i dont buy the tyre wear theory personally.

[mwillems]

For anyone saying that Mercedes were cheating, this comment from an F1 mechanic on Reddit might be interesting:



Source:https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comme ... ing_15_kg/

That is the question I wanted answering. Are they weighed after Qualifying.

Still, Merc didn't know they'd be doing most of the race on one set of tyres, so no need to worry at that point.
Assuming that it was because of the rubber, but it is quite feasible.

Still, and the end of the race, they knew damn well they were going to try and get away with it. At least some in the team were aware, I have a feeling that Toto didn't know at that point.

That was the race plan for LH, so they must have had an idea about wear. i dont buy the tyre wear theory personally.

They planned to one-stop LH? Do you have links to support?

Can 15 extra laps wear 1.5kg of rubber. I have no idea. Seems a bit of a push but that's not enough to damn them. I feel fine saying that it was just a cover up at the end, most teams would try to get away with it if they could.

[Seanspeed]

Lewis fans loving the excuse potential right now.

We'll just ignore that Russell simply drove impeccably. Reverse roles and none of these same people would ever try and take anything away from Lewis.

It's insane how many people simply refuse to accept that Russell is a serious talent. And I'm not some Russell supporter or anything(I'm a team fan always, and for Ferrari). But his skill is undeniable. He's been clobbering Lewis most of this season and I've never in my life seen somebody so heavily beat somebody who is considered an all time great and get so little credit for it.

[Mosin123]

That is the question I wanted answering. Are they weighed after Qualifying.

Still, Merc didn't know they'd be doing most of the race on one set of tyres, so no need to worry at that point.
Assuming that it was because of the rubber, but it is quite feasible.

Still, and the end of the race, they knew damn well they were going to try and get away with it. At least some in the team were aware, I have a feeling that Toto didn't know at that point.

That was the race plan for LH, so they must have had an idea about wear. i dont buy the tyre wear theory personally.

They planned to one-stop LH? Do you have links to support?

Can 15 extra laps wear 1.5kg of rubber. I have no idea. Seems a bit of a push but that's not enough to damn them. I feel fine saying that it was just a cover up at the end, most teams would try to get away with it if they could.

Lewis interview after the race, was linked earlier in the Merc thread "

They decided one stop strategy for lewis before the race and inverted without telling him

"

[Mosin123]

Lewis fans loving the excuse potential right now.

We'll just ignore that Russell simply drove impeccably. Reverse roles and none of these same people would ever try and take anything away from Lewis.

It's insane how many people simply refuse to accept that Russell is a serious talent. And I'm not some Russell supporter or anything(I'm a team fan always, and for Ferrari). But his skill is undeniable. He's been clobbering Lewis most of this season and I've never in my life seen somebody so heavily beat somebody who is considered an all time great and get so little credit for it.

Not sure you noticed, But LH is nearly 40 points a head of GR, in a team, clearly favouring the other driver.....

[Seanspeed]

Lewis fans loving the excuse potential right now.

We'll just ignore that Russell simply drove impeccably. Reverse roles and none of these same people would ever try and take anything away from Lewis.

It's insane how many people simply refuse to accept that Russell is a serious talent. And I'm not some Russell supporter or anything(I'm a team fan always, and for Ferrari). But his skill is undeniable. He's been clobbering Lewis most of this season and I've never in my life seen somebody so heavily beat somebody who is considered an all time great and get so little credit for it.

Not sure you noticed, But LH is nearly 40 points a head of GR, in a team, clearly favouring the other driver.....

Yes, I too would be confused if I didn't actually follow F1 and only looked at Wikipedia results.

[Mosin123]

Lewis fans loving the excuse potential right now.

We'll just ignore that Russell simply drove impeccably. Reverse roles and none of these same people would ever try and take anything away from Lewis.

It's insane how many people simply refuse to accept that Russell is a serious talent. And I'm not some Russell supporter or anything(I'm a team fan always, and for Ferrari). But his skill is undeniable. He's been clobbering Lewis most of this season and I've never in my life seen somebody so heavily beat somebody who is considered an all time great and get so little credit for it.

Not sure you noticed, But LH is nearly 40 points a head of GR, in a team, clearly favouring the other driver.....

Yes, I too would be confused if I didn't actually follow F1 and only looked at Wikipedia results.

I looked on f1 website actually..... Dont be salty cause your GR got DQ for cheating with an under weight car...... after his team done his team mate over on his one stop pre race stratagy and gave it to GR and didnt even let him know to regain his lead...... Was Karma

[NoDivergence]

Not sure you noticed, But LH is nearly 40 points a head of GR, in a team, clearly favouring the other driver.....

Yes, I too would be confused if I didn't actually follow F1 and only looked at Wikipedia results.

I looked on f1 website actually..... Dont be salty cause your GR got DQ for cheating with an under weight car...... after his team done his team mate over on his one stop pre race stratagy and gave it to GR and didnt even let him know to regain his lead...... Was Karma

Save your breath. Seanspeed better has been hating on Lewis since 2013/4

[Dunlay]

Lewis fans loving the excuse potential right now.

We'll just ignore that Russell simply drove impeccably. Reverse roles and none of these same people would ever try and take anything away from Lewis.

It's insane how many people simply refuse to accept that Russell is a serious talent. And I'm not some Russell supporter or anything(I'm a team fan always, and for Ferrari). But his skill is undeniable. He's been clobbering Lewis most of this season and I've never in my life seen somebody so heavily beat somebody who is considered an all time great and get so little credit for it.

Not sure you noticed, But LH is nearly 40 points a head of GR, in a team, clearly favouring the other driver.....

Nobody favours a driver going out of the team, especially when he is not fighting for WDC. That's how things work in F1 and that's the right thing to do. I am sure he would get that preferential treatment at Ferrari.

[TFSA]

And for what would that change be ?

There's a set of rules (always will be) they know them, as do all the teams. If they want to gamble at that hard line of a no tolerance, rather than ensuring they are able to comply each and every race, then they get the results available to them through their OWN process.

You're not making a convincing argument. Saying "there's a set of rules" isn't an argument - rules can be changed, and sometimes should, because they're simply stupid. F1 has had its fair share of stupid rules through time, and this is no exception.

My arguments for this suggested rule change is the following:

• It's already in practice if cars finish a race on wet tires. So it's a known and implemented procedure to change the tires of cars before weighing them.
• The current rules disadvantages certain strategies. It doesn't make sense that a cars minimum weight should be judged by them either having done a different strategies (longer stint on final tire), nor does it make sense that drivers should resort to strange shenanigans like marble pickup to make sure they're within the weight limit. Why should a driver or team deciding mid-race that they're going to try for a 1 stop have to be extra worried about the weight limit than people on a two-stop?

Please make a convincing argument for why the 2nd list point above makes any sense at all. And just to be clear: "The teams know the rules" isn't a convincing argument.

[TFSA]

That was the race plan for LH, so they must have had an idea about wear. i dont buy the tyre wear theory personally.

The tire wear theorem absolutely makes sense.

1.6 kilograms is only 400 grams per tire.

400 grams isn't a lot. It's about the weight of a smartphone. Rubber does weigh a bit, and considering how much rubber F1 cars can shred, how huge and wide their tires are, and thats they drive high-downforce cars at massive speeds in corners, it's absolutely conceivable that cars can hose a few kilograms of rubber over the duration of an entire race. And even if Russell didn't shred that much by extending his last stint, he could potentially have made up that weight if they had allowed pebble pickup at Spa.

You really don't think that the pickup demonstrated in this picture (for the entire circumference of the tire) can make up 400 grams? Because I certainly think it can.

[FittingMechanics]

I think it is obviously tire usage but I don't buy for a second they made a mistake draining the car. Someone tried to hide it.

It makes no sense to say they didn't drain the car fully as they saw it was underweight. They know the car will have to be drained.

[PlatinumZealot]

Not the way Lewis wants to win via DQ of another driver who did not intentionally break the rules. But the way Lewis raced was deserving of the win. It's not a freebie for sure. George was flying out of those corners because he had less weight to carry up that hill.