Hamilton claims 'several' cars illegal after US GP disqualification

Lewis Hamilton has claimed that several other cars breached the technical regulations and were illegal after the United States Grand Prix.

The seven-time World Champion crossed the line in second place but was disqualified from the classification alongside Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for excessive plank wear beyond the tolerated 1mm allowance.

This was found in the extra random checks the FIA performs to ensure legality with the regulations as it cannot check every part on every car after every race owing to the sheer time this would take.

However, this has drawn criticism after two of the four cars - 50% of the sample - failed the check, leading to the idea that some cars which were in an illegal condition 'got away' with it as they were not checked.

Mercedes has acknowledged that it made an “understandable mistake” and has vowed to take a more conservative approach at bumpy tracks which are similar to the Circuit of the Americas.

But Hamilton believes that there were more than just two cars that should have been disqualified from the results.

Hamilton calls for change to regulations

"I've heard from several different sources that there were a lot of other cars that also were illegal, but they weren't tested so they got away with it," he told media including RacingNews365 in Mexico ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

"I've been racing here 16 years, there's been times where there's been many other scenarios like this where some people got away with certain things and some people have just been unlucky that they got tested."

As part of the F1 Sprint regulations, the cars are set in parc ferme conditions as they roll out for the start of qualifying, meaning the teams can't make any major changes to the set-up without incurring a penalty.

Hamilton has called for that particular part of the weekend to be revised.

"Ultimately, there needs to be some sort of better structure in terms of making sure it's fair and even across the board," he said.

"We've never had that problem in Austin before. It was just because we had to sprint race as well, so an easy solution and an easy fix for that one, for example, is that we're able to approach the weekend differently where the car is not set from Friday morning, especially at these bumpy tracks.

"That's really the only reason that there are failures. It's just because it's so bumpy and some cars are able to some cars have better ride quality than others.

“Look at Charles' head and my head [in the car].

"We had a pretty bad ride and our heads bumped around quite a lot because the cars hit the deck."