2024 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa-Francorchamps, July 26 - 28

[Just_a_fan]

What happens when a car has puncture and misses part of the tyre, but wins like Lewis did in 2020 British GP?

Nothing. Just look at the 2020 British GP results. There is a rule for damages.

The tyre wear thing is a red herring to cover up a simple cock-up by George's side of the garage during car set up. I bet something silly like a tool being left in the car when it was being weighed prior to the race and then picked up after the weighing and the person not thinking about the consequences.

Well, I think they just forgot about the missing pick up. According to Merc Lewis had the same starting weight, so I guess he is just lucky...does anyone know how much he was over the threshold?
And actually it is surprisingly clean on the start/finish straight. In the on-boards after the race I can not spot any marbles on the track there.

They forgot about pick up? At a circuit where they always go back in to the pits from T1?

If so, they're idiots.

[Espresso]

MB: The cars were within 500gr difference.
So George must have lost weight…

Is that correct?
The weird part is that the racing suit soak up all the fluid (sweat and pee)…that’s the way it’s designed and makes up part of the drivers weight.
So you have to take the driver out of the calculation.
MB ain’t telling the whole truth!

[GrizzleBoy]

We are never going to hear the whole story, because if it was in their interest to tell us we would know already what the issue was.

Planks depths can be measured.

Parts can be weighed.

Tyres can be weighed.

This is F1 we are talking about. They know the weight of invisible air molecules pushing down on wings and suspensions to the point that they can calculate exactly how strong links and flexible parts need to be to create the optimum shape under a determined load (flexiwings), but cant figure out what part of the car was lighter, where or why?

Yeah, okay.

[Mogster]

Shovlin said it was a combination of fluid loss by the driver, tyre wear, brake wear and loss of lubricants. I don’t think we’ll ever know the full story.

Hamilton doesn’t use a drinks bottle from what he’s said previously and never urinates in the cockpit while driving, apparently many drivers do. I’ve read that drinks bottle volumes can be up to 1.5l which would be within the realms of the weights talked about.

[Just_a_fan]

Shovlin said it was a combination of fluid loss by the driver, tyre wear, brake wear and loss of lubricants. I don’t think we’ll ever know the full story.

Hamilton doesn’t use a drinks bottle from what he’s said previously and never urinates in the cockpit while driving, apparently many drivers do. I’ve read that drinks bottle volumes can be up to 1.5l which would be within the realms of the weights talked about.

The driver that doesn't drink will lose more mass than the driver that does. So Hamilton ought to have been relatively less massive than Russell at the ed of the race.

[TFSA]

A little late this, btw, but we argued it on Discord, and i haven't really seen it mentioned. But i cannot - for the life of me - understand why McLaren allowed Red Bull to undercut them on the second pit stop.

1. On lap 26 (17 laps to go), Norris gets within DRS range of Verstappen just before turn 16 (so in Sector 3).
2. Verstappen only has a new medium left, Norris has a new hard. So Norris has the option to pit earlier than Verstappen, who would have trouble making a medium last 17 laps at spa. Traffic at the time wasn't an issue, and they would come out ahead of Ocon, who was almost 9 seconds behind Perez.
3. Yet McLaren opts not to pit Norris, but instead leaves him out sniffing Verstappens rear wing.
4. Verstappen pits at the end of lap 28, therefore undercutting Norris, despite inferior tire available to Red Bull.

Make it make sense. It's just another Pit Wall disaster from McLaren.


(also note: while some might think that Red Bull could have left Verstappen out if Norris pitted first, similar to George, because overtaking was difficult - that goes both ways. McLaren could also have left Norris out after Verstappen pitted)