Brundle counters Hamilton in FIA controversy debate

Former F1 driver Martin Brundle has countered Lewis Hamilton's complaints over the FIA's processes in disqualifying him from the United States Grand Prix.

The seven-time World Champion had narrowly missed out on overhauling Max Verstappen for victory at the Circuit of the Americas when he was thrown out post-race for a skid block on his Mercedes that had worn past the threshold set out by the Technical Regulations.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc suffered the same fate with only four cars tested in this area, leading to criticism over the procedure as Hamilton suggested sources had told him non-tested cars had also breached the regulations.

But Brundle has backed the FIA as the fallout continues at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

FIA do a tremendous job

"I see it differently to Lewis, I must say," Brundle told Sky Sports F1.

"We know with this current generation of car that closer to the ground means quite a bit more performance.

"I would also like to say that the FIA do a tremendous job of policing the technical aspects of F1 and there are reasons, we understand, why they chose those cars anyway because of data they had seen.

"I can't help but think - because the teams take them off and can impound them, measure them - we don't know whether the rest of the field was legal or illegal... I've asked some of the team members and of course, they all say their car was fine, I asked another team and they said 'we weren't sure' which is nonsense because on the build down, all that is checked.

"But if you are a kilo overweight or a millimetre too wide with your wings, you get thrown out of the race, that's why those regulations are there and those two cars were outside the regulations at the end of the Grand Prix.