Toto Wolff claims swapping Lewis Hamilton and George Russell was a consideration for Mercedes

Toto Wolff shared that Mercedes considered a swap between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday as the two drivers battled it out for the Belgian Grand Prix win. Despite all the criticisms that McLaren faced for the team order in Hungary, Mercedes were ready for the call if the race would have had one more lap in order to safeguard their 1-2 finish.

The entire F1 world witnessed Russell Hustle versus Hammer Time in the concluding laps of the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix. As the Silver Arrows allowed them to race each other, things began to get feisty. In the end, Russell prevailed as he took the checkered flag amidst his teammate, Hamilton's incredible push.

The younger British driver crossed the finish line 0.526 seconds ahead of his veteran compatriot, which was agonizingly close. Hamilton closed the gap of over five seconds to bring it under one second in the last few laps.

But at one point, it seemed that the seven-time world champion would easily overtake Russell before the checkered flag. However, it did not happen as Hamilton struggled to get past. As the Mercedes duo jockeyed for positions, they lost time, hurt their tires, and welcomed McLaren's Oscar Piastri to join the party.

Given McLaren's pace, Piastri could have overtaken Lewis Hamilton and George Russell and finished on top if the two Mercedes drivers kept fighting each other. And many questioned if a team order was necessary to prevent Piastri from claiming the victory.

“If we had one more lap that could have been a consideration because it would have protected P1 and George would have finished P3. But I’m happy that we didn’t have to make this call," Wolff said to the media after the race (via PlanetF1).

Thanks to a superior strategy by the team and George Russell, the 26-year-old was able to take the victory after having a one-stop race. This came about in a mainly two-stop race at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

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Mercedes boss apologized following George Russell's disqualification

Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, and Joseph McMillan, Lead Race Strategist of Mercedes Source: Getty Images

Mercedes claimed their first 1-2 finish since the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo. However, their happiness was short-lived after the FIA disqualified George Russell for breaching FIA's technical regulations.

According to reports, Russell's car #63 W15 was underweight by 1.5 kilograms. Following the race, the FIA weighed his car and found it to be 796.5 kilograms, instead of 798.0 kilograms, the minimum weight stipulated by the FIA.

The FIA disqualified George Russell and stripped him of the race win. Toto Wolff and Mercedes took responsibility for the loss and apologized to the driver and fans.

"We have to take our disqualification on the chin. 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 1-2 is frustrating and we can only apologize to George who drove such a strong race.

"Lewis is of course promoted to P1; he was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner. 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," the statement read.

George Russell's disqualification improved drivers by one place as Lewis Hamilton inherited the victory, followed by Oscar Piastri in P2, and Charles Leclerc in P3.