Lewis Hamilton is fourth in the standings after 10 races (Photo: Getty)
Sir Lewis Hamilton says ‘it’s definitely a concern’ that Formula One teams may have broken the budget cap for a second year running.
Earlier this week, rumours began to circulate that three teams were in breach of the $140million budget cap for the 2022 season, leading to the sport’s CEO calling for stricter ‘sporting penalties’.
This follows the events of last year when Red Bull were found guilty of overspending for the 2021 season when Max Verstappen controversially pipped Hamilton to the title.
Red Bull were fined and handed a reduction in their wind tunnel time a result, punishments that at the time were deemed too light by rivals, an opinion that has grown even more given how the champions are dominating in 2023.
According to Sky Sports, F1’s governing body the FIA have refuted these rumours, calling them ‘factually wrong’, with their review of all 10 teams’ finances expected to be published at the end of August.
Ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton was asked if he felt concerned that teams could be breaching the cap based on the light punishment.
‘Yes, it’s definitely a concern,’ the seven-time champion told Sky.
Hamilton has won the Hungarian GP eight times, most recently in 2020 (Photo: Getty)
‘I mean, it wasn’t really a big punishment last time so there’s no real [deterrent]. There’ll be people that will probably go for it again, and know they’re just gonna get slapped on the wrist.
‘It’s not my job to do that [decide what the punishment should be]. But we have people in place who are supposed to police that. But it doesn’t surprise me because it was not a big penalty before.’
The Hungaroring is one of Hamilton’s favourite circuits, having won the grand prix a record eight times, and although a ninth victory is probably out of reach this weekend, the Mercedes man is ‘hopeful’ he can be near the front again.
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‘McLaren were much quicker than us in the high-speed [at Silverstone] but we were quicker in the lower-speed. This [Hungaroring] is much more lower-speed and medium-speed.
‘So hopefully we should be at least much closer. We’ve been working on the car constantly. It was good for us here last year so hopefully it will be good this weekend.’
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‘There’ll be people that will probably go for it again.’
