Lewis Hamilton passes fiery cost cap verdict with sarcastic F1 dig

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Lewis Hamilton has urged the FIA to act over Red Bull’s budget cap breach to avoid encouraging teams to follow their lead in the future. The Mercedes star has broken his silence on the matter after the Austrian manufacturer were found guilty of a ‘minor breach’ following the FIA’s financial audit earlier in October.

Negotiations have been ongoing for several weeks between the FIA and Red Bull as to how to proceed after their financial audit revealed the team had incurred a ‘minor breach’ of the £114million budget cap last season, with Mercedes and Ferrari pushing for a heavy punishment to be handed out.

The team have been offered the chance to consider an ‘Accepted Breach Agreement’ with fixed terms from the FIA, which would likely make public the terms of Red Bull’s punishment.

Hamilton has never shied away from discussing difficult topics in Formula 1, ranging from human rights concerns in the Middle East to the sport’s lack of inclusivity. And the seven-time world champion, who was pipped to the 2021 title by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, thinks the FIA must take a zero-tolerance approach to ensure the cost cap does not become redundant in F1.

“I do think the sport needs to do something about this,” Hamilton told reporters ahead of the United States Grand Prix. “Otherwise, if it’s quite relaxed, if they’re relaxed with these rules, then all the teams will just go over.

“And spending millions more and then only having a slap on the wrist is obviously not going to be great for the sport. They might as well not have a cost cap for the future [in that case].”

FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem is under pressure from F1 team bosses to make an example of Red Bull after receiving a latter from McLaren boss Zak Brown, in addition to calls from Toto Wolff and Mattia Binotto to act. It stands to be a crossroads moment for the sport in limiting spending of teams after seeing Mercedes and now Red Bull dominate in recent years.

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And Hamilton, who is still without a race victory in 2022, insists he trusts the sport’s chiefs to “make the right decisions” to ensure F1’s integrity is protected: “I have to believe that,” he added.

“I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, naturally. And otherwise, I’m just focused on doing the best job I can. What they have done, it’s done.”

Hamilton added that F1 chiefs must stay “true to the values of the sport and the regulations that were put there to be policed”, as well as urging clarity for the fans of the sport, who remain in the dark over what will happen to Red Bull.

He added: “I think it can be a confusing time for fans. Without the fans, the sport is nothing. So yeah. I think we’ve just got to hold on to those values.”

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