Michael Schumacher, the last disqualified winner before George Russell

Clearly, the Belgian Grand Prix does not smile on the winners! Like George Russell this Sunday, Michael Schumacher was disqualified from the Spa event exactly 30 years ago, however for different reasons. If the Briton from Mercedes was the victim of a car too light by 1,5 kilos, the seven-time world champion, who was running at the time behind his first title, became the first victim of a rule introduced two races earlier.

Following the tragic events of the Imola weekend, where Roland Ratzenberger (April 30) and Ayrton Senna (May 1) lost their lives, the FIA ​​had put in place a whole series of measures to slow down the single-seaters during of the following Grand Prix. One of these measures was the introduction, at the German Grand Prix, of a wooden board, 10 mm thick, attached to the flat bottom. This had the immediate effect of raising the single-seaters, and thus reducing the effectiveness of the flat bottom, and the speed of passing curves. This board is still in use today, although it is now made of resin. It is also excessive wear of this device which led to the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton et Charles Leclerc at the 2023 United States Grand Prix.

A leap into the unknown

In 1994, therefore, the addition of a board to the flat bottom of F1 cars was a novelty. If everything had gone well from this point of view in Germany and Hungary, the teams entered were welcomed at Spa-Francorchamps by copious showers. Only a few minutes of qualifying took place in the dry, allowing Rubens Barrichello to take his first pole position in Formula 1. The warm-up on Sunday, and the race a few hours later, would take place on a dry track. What to do about ride heights? If the cars are raised a few millimeters or even centimeters in the rain to limit aquaplanning, they must be as close to the ground as possible to maximize their aerodynamic downforce on a dry track. Without real data, the teams attacked the warm-up with cars as close as possible to the ground, the two title contenders, Damon Hill (Williams) and Michael Schumacher (Benetton) deciding to slightly raise their cars.

They were well off from a strictly performance point of view, since the German won ahead of the Briton at the end of the 44 laps, contested on a Spa-Francorchamps circuit longer than usual, due to the addition of a chicane at the foot of the legendary Raidillon. Schumacher took a good lead in the championship, with 35 points more than Hill, and five Grands Prix remaining on the menu for the season. For the Benetton driver, this lead was crucial since he was banned from the next two races of the championship, for facts dating back to the British Grand Prix.

Five hours after the race, the cold shower. The Benetton marked No. 5 is disqualified for excessive wear of the board. In fact, the regulations indicated that the board could wear up to 10% of its initial thickness, and therefore go down to 9 mm. However, Schumacher's board was measured at 7,4 mm on almost a third of its total surface. The Italian team argued in an appeal that the wear occurred during a spin on the 19th lap on a curb, but FIA investigations concluded that this was unlikely. Damon Hill then won the Grand Prix, reducing the gap to 25 points, and launching the championship in a final sprint which ended in the streets of Adelaide, Australia…

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