Christian Horner, the team principal of Red Bull, commented on George Russell’s disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix.
At Spa-Francorchamps, Russell crossed the finish line ahead of Lewis Hamilton to record his second victory of the year.
But soon after, it became apparent that Russell’s victory was in jeopardy when it was discovered that his car was underweight, which usually results in an automatic disqualification.
Russell’s exclusion followed the stewards’ prompt confirmation that his Mercedes did not comply with the regulations.
Some, like Toto Wolff, the manager of the Mercedes team, speculated that being underweight was caused in part by Russell’s one-stop strategy, which resulted in the loss of rubber.
In an interview with Sky F1, Horner said that might have been the case.
As Horner pointed out on Friday, “I’m sure he would have lost well over a kilo of rubber [through the strategy].”
“If you don’t have enough fuel to complete the sample, you’ll be using it as ballast.” Therefore, this is quite unfortunate news for George, yet their estimations were off.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finished the race in fourth and seventh place, respectively, thanks to Russell’s disqualification.