How often is the race winner actually disqualified in Formula 1? The precedents before the disqualification of George Russell in Belgium 2024
First comes the jubilation, then the disillusionment: Mercedes driver George Russell won the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on the racetrack. But because his W15 was underweight, Russell lost the victory that evening. And he is not the first Formula 1 winner to be disqualified
It is striking: Car weight was not only an issue for Russell in Belgium 2024, but also before that. And technical infringements are not always the reason for disqualification.
What should make Russell optimistic despite the annoying disqualification for him is a side note of precedent: all disqualified Formula 1 winners before him were either already world champions or became world champions in the same year.
But all that was a long time ago. 30 years or more, to be precise. And one incident is probably well known to many German Formula 1 fans: it involves Michael Schumacher in the Benetton and the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix. The other disqualifications all date back even further, but interestingly all took place within a period of just 18 years.
But weren’t there many other controversial situations surrounding race wins in Formula 1? Absolutely! And this is where the “green table” comes into play, i.e. negotiations about whether a disqualification should be upheld or not. And indeed: in some cases, those responsible backed down after the disqualification and returned the victories.
The respective circumstances are described in detail: Who won and when, why they were disqualified and for what reasons they later reappeared in the results after all. Because sometimes the “green table” produced completely different results than the races had previously produced.
And if, in Russell’s case, there were only a few hours between crossing the finish line and the result being corrected, things have been very different. In some cases, the final result was not only negotiated for days, but even for weeks and months.
