Wolff apologises to Russell after Mercedes ‘mistake’ leads to Belgian GP disqualification

Toto Wolff has offered his reaction to George Russell’s disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix, saying Mercedes “can only apologise” to their driver.

Russell had seemingly pulled off an unlikely win during Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps, having risen from sixth on the grid via an alternate, one-stop strategy.

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However, after the chequered flag, Russell’s car was found to be underweight, with the stewards subsequently excluding him from the results – meaning team mate Lewis Hamilton takes the win.

Following the stewards’ report, which noted that Russell’s car was initially “not fully drained [of fuel] according to the draining procedure submitted by the team in their legality documents”, Mercedes issued a statement from team boss Wolff across their social media channels.

“We have to take our disqualification on the chin,” said Wolff. “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 and we can only apologise to George who drove such a strong race.”

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The disappointment and frustration of Russell’s penalty aside, Wolff expressed his general satisfaction over the recent progress at Mercedes as F1 heads into its summer break.

“Lewis is of course promoted to P1; he was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner,” continued the Austrian.

“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.”

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Mercedes sit fourth in the constructors’ standings after 14 of 24 scheduled rounds in 2024, behind Ferrari, McLaren and championship leaders Red Bull.

Meanwhile, in the drivers’ battle, Spa winner Hamilton holds sixth position, with the excluded Russell two spots back in eighth.