How Russell 'gut feeling' Belgian GP strategy led to post-race heartache

From the top step of the podium to disqualification in no time at all. George Russell's one-stop heroics at the 2024 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix looked to have sent him and Mercedes into the summer on the highest of highs, but a post-race scrutineering failure gifted team-mate Lewis Hamilton the win and left questions to be answered

“Yep.” George Russell’s mind, it seemed, was made up.

A few laps after planting the seed of a one-stop strategy into his engineers’ heads, the idea was put to him after a few more laps circulating on the hard tyres. He barely needed to calculate it. The degradation was lower than expected, his lap times were still competitive, and he felt completely comfortable on his current set of white-walled Pirellis.

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake Boxall-Legge Autosport’s Technical Editor. Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.