Last weekend saw the disqualification of the Mercedes Formula One car driven by George Russel for failing to reach the required weight limit. The Stewards who are the race officials will randomly select a few cars at the end of the race to check making sure they are legal and meeting the race weight limits.
George Russel was an obvious choice as not only did he win the race, but he made only 1 pit stop compared to everyone else having pitted two or more times. Many people at the time called it tactical wizardry, but the engineers Mercedes must have known they were going to be close whether they would make the required weight limit or not.
Over the course of the race a car will use up it's fuel load, engine oil, brake pads and it's tyres along with the driver losing weight through perspiration. The other item is the wooden skid plank underneath the car which is worn down and has to be of a certain thickness which is also checked by the officials.
The Mercedes car failed the minimum weight test by 1.5 Kg's and this was down to having old worn out tyres that had thinned out so much that they had also lost weight. If Russel had pitted twice he would have made the weight limit due to having more rubber on his tyres.
This is how fine the margins are and why the call by Russel to stay out should have been denied. This is something that most racing enthusiasts would not even consider ad this is an amateur mistake Mercedes have made. This is not somehting they would have done 5 years ago and it is more about the finer detail being on top of your game. Formula One s one sport tat is driven entirely on data and the calculations should have warned them that they would fall short.
Once the cars finish the race you see them all driving onto the areas of race track that have gathered the marbles which are bits of rubber from the tyres and this adds extra weight to their vehicles. The Spa racing circuit where this race was held does not have the run off areas like we see at other tracks and there is less opportunity for adding the weight that is normally required.
When you think of how important the testing sessions are for gathering data t is not all about car set up, but also fuel loads and making sure they will be legal with the weight limits. Once they changed tactically for a 1 stop race instead of the two the alarm bells should have been ringing and a mistake that has cost the team millions in lost points. This was a gamble that should never have been allowed to happen and why drivers need to listen to their team strategists and not think they know it all.