George Russell says he nonetheless considers his Belgian Grand Prix as a “win” in his thoughts regardless of being disqualified after his automobile was discovered to be underweight.
The Mercedes driver took the chequered flag first within the final race earlier than the summer season break at Spa-Francorchamps, simply forward of staff mate Lewis Hamilton and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
Russell was the one main driver to try a one-stop technique within the race and efficiently held off Hamilton within the remaining laps to assert victory. Nevertheless, after the rostrum ceremony, Russell was disqualified from the ultimate race outcomes after his automobile was discovered to be 1.5 kilograms underneath the minimal weight of 798kg.
Talking forward of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, Russell admitted Mercedes had underestimated how a lot weight each the automobile and he would lose over the course of the race distance.
“Clearly we didn’t do a adequate job, however it was simply plenty of components all coming collectively the place we, form of exceeded our expectation of how a lot weight we’d lose,” he stated.
“Together with myself – I misplaced a bit extra weight in the course of the race than we thought. The tyres misplaced much more than we anticipated. The plank was sporting greater than we thought, as nicely. It’s simply these three or 4 components all coming collectively that simply pushed us over the sting.”
Regardless of having misplaced a victory from being underweight, Russell insists Mercedes don’t have to immediately turn into extra conservative of their method to racing sooner or later.
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“I’ve been pushing the staff for a very long time to maintain pushing the boundaries,” he stated. “When you take margin in all the things you do, you’d by no means be disqualified. You’d by no means make a mistake whereas driving. You’d by no means spin off. However you’d by no means know what the true potential is.
“After all, it’s very irritating that the one time in three years we’ve been slightly below the load restrict was the race we gained. However there’s zero laborious emotions as a result of we’re on this collectively and it’ll make us stronger for the longer term.”
Russell says that the teachings discovered from Spa will make sure that any related state of affairs doesn’t happen once more in future.
“The processes weren’t fairly in place to cowl all of the completely different eventualities,” he defined.
“I knew earlier than the race I used to be somewhat bit mild, however it was too late to make a considerable change with out consuming a steak or one thing – which was most likely not the very best pre-race routine. There are issues that now, with the good thing about hindsight, we will do higher and we can be doing higher transferring ahead. And as all the time, you’ll want to make a mistake first till you recognise there’s an issue.”
Regardless of shedding what would have been the third victory of his profession, Russell says he’ll all the time worth his efficiency within the race alongside his two earlier F1 wins.
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“That race, I misplaced 25 factors, however in my thoughts, that’s nonetheless a win,” he stated.
“I’ve stored my helmet and it’s going to be on my bedside desk with my different two victories. These celebrations I had with the staff in that second, straight after, have been a number of the greatest emotions of my profession. So I’ll solely take positives from what occurred.”
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