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George Russell was forced to retire from the Belgian Grand Prix on the first lap after his Mercedes collided with Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari. The FIA would investigate the collision and lay the blame at the feet of the seven-time world champion, giving him a five-second penalty.
Hamilton would serve this five-second penalty during his first pit stop; however, this did not seem to have a telling impact on his race, as the British driver would finish fourth. While it was accepted that it was the 41-year-old who was at fault for the crash, an F1 analyst has now worked out what led to Russell’s race-ending crash.
As reported by SPORTbible, Formula Data Analysis on X has explained that Russell’s car had a deployment issue, and his speed got stuck at 308 km/h, meaning his car couldn’t accelerate and only started accelerating again at the end of the straight.
The account further dissected the problems, stating that Russell tackled Eau Rouge/Raidillon in eighth gear, while McLaren used 7th despite having the shortest gear ratios on the grid.
Formula Data Analysis wrote: “Could the deployment software have been fooled by taking these corners in the highest gear?
“His rpm dropped to 10,176, below the 10,500 rpm threshold required to unlock full fuel flow → the ICE wasn’t even running at full power!”
The impact of George Russell’s retirement on the 2026 F1 Drivers’ Championship title battle
Russell is currently attempting to secure his first-ever F1 Drivers’ Championship this season, and coming into the season, he was seen by many as the favorite to secure the title. However, it has not panned out this way, as we are almost at the midpoint of the campaign, having retired in the Canadian and Belgian Grand Prixes.
Kimi Antonelli has been the driver to beat this season, having won six of the 10 races, and he has established a strong advantage in the championship as he is 45 points ahead of his nearest rival, Lewis Hamilton. Prior to the Belgian Grand Prix, Russell had been the nearest rival, as he had been 25 points off Antonelli; however, he is now 50 points off his Mercedes teammate.
Charles Leclerc is the only other driver to have won a Grand Prix this season and arguably the only other individual with a chance of winning the title this year, as he is 78 points behind with 12 more races this campaign. The next Grand Prix of the season will be in Hungary, and should Antonelli win the race, it could be a telling result, as he would need to have a nightmare in several races to allow any of his rivals a foothold in the title battle.
