What Russell is showing with Spa disqualification reaction

George Russell’s disqualification in the Belgian Grand Prix could prove to be the most important non-victory of his career.

The Mercedes driver had produced arguably his best performance in F1 to cross the line in first place, only to have the result taken away from him after being found to be underweight.

His Mercedes was 1.5kg underweight once the fuel had been drained from his car, resulting in him being expunged from the results. It was a slam dunk penalty and an understandable blow to the 26-year-old who looked to have defied the odds by pulling off an audacious one-stop strategy.

But instead of beating himself up over the miscalculation – which, interestingly, he admitted was a collective error and not simply blaming his team – he revealed how he was maintaining a positive mindset by storing the helmet he wore at Spa with the two from his other victories in Sao Paulo and Austria.

“I’d been pushing the team for a long time to keep pushing the boundaries,” he said. “If you take margin in everything you do, you’d never be disqualified. You’d never make a mistake while driving. You’d never spin off. But you’d never know what the true potential is.

“Of course, it’s very frustrating that the one time in three years we’ve been just under the weight limit was the race we won. But you know, there’s zero hard feelings because we’re in this together and it will make us stronger for the future.

“I lost 25 points but in my mind, that is still a win. I’ve kept my helmet, and it’s going to be going on my bedside table with my other two victories. Those celebrations I had with the team in that moment straight after were some of the best feelings of my career. So I’ll only take positives from what happened.”

He added: “Nobody can take that feeling away from me from crossing the line, celebrating with my team, standing on the podium.

“If I was in a championship fight this year, it would have been a much bigger blow to us, those 25 points. But unfortunately, we’re not quite there.”

Russell’s approach is different, say, to Lando Norris, who has often laboured after his missed opportunities. The McLaren driver has tended to dwell on the negativity when he has seen an opportunity slip through his grasp.

Of course, it is a case of whatever approach works best for a driver but it is clear that Russell’s response displayed yet…