Mercedes engineer accused of sending 'unnecessary' message to Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton was noticeably frustrated by Mercedes' strategy during the Belgian Grand Prix that saw him clinch P2 before George Russell's disqualification.

09:16, Mon, Jul 29, 2024 | UPDATED: 09:17, Mon, Jul 29, 2024

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Formula One

Lewis Hamilton was handed victory at the Belgian Grand Prix after George Russell's disqualification (Image: Getty)

Lewis Hamilton being told to give enough space when racing George Russell in the Belgian Grand Prix was an "unnecessary" message to give the seven-time champion, according to ex-F1 chief Peter Windsor. The Brit initially finished second in Sunday's race with his Mercedes team-mate claiming his second win of the season.

However, the 39-year-old's runner-up finish was promoted to a race win after Russell was disqualified following a post-race FIA investigation, which found that his car was under the minimum weight required when it was assessed after the race. It was a bittersweet moment for the 26-year-old who raced tremendously despite having just one pitstop and had to fight off his team-mate in the last laps of the race at Spa.

While the pair were allowed to race in the final laps, Hamilton was told by his senior race engineer Peter 'Bono' Bonnington to "give each other a lot of space' when chasing Russell, a message that former Formula One manager Peter Windsor believes was an "unnecessary" message and one that should have been relayed to Russell instead.

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"I thought it was quite interesting [with] two or three laps to go, and they [Mercedes] said 'just give each other a lot of space' to Lewis, I think they should have been giving that message to George actually," Windsor said on his YouTube channel. "They gave it to Lewis and I wonder if that changed things a little bit, that's unnecessary to say that to Lewis Hamilton I think because he's not the sort of driver that ever really does anything incredibly stupid, particularly with a team-mate.

"At that stage of the race, I don't think Lewis had to be told that and maybe that affected his aggression a little". Prior to the call to disqualify Russell, Hamilton displayed his frustration with Mercedes' strategy during the race as he said: "I was trying to get close to George, he did a great job going long on the tyres. Every stint I had tyres left but the team pulled me in. Unfortunate, but it is what it is.

"You have to put the faith in the people you work with. I put my faith in my strategists, I should be able to lean on them fully. I told them that the tyres were fine. They pulled me in... did I know that I was at risk of getting one stopped by my teammate? They didn’t tell me that."

F1 Grand Prix of Belgium

The Brit voiced his frustration over Mercedes' strategy during the race (Image: Getty)

In what would have been Mercedes' first 1-2 since Brazil in 2022, chief Toto Wolff offered up an apology to Russell for the team's error, which wiped away the third race win of his Formula 1 career. "We have to take our disqualification on the chin," the Austrian said.

"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 apologise to George who drove such a strong race.

"Lewis was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner. 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."