Lewis Hamilton has taken a new swipe at the punishment handed to Red Bull for its breach of F1's budget cap in 2021. Reports ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix suggested two or three teams had broken the cap for the 2022 campaign, though the FIA came out and rubbished the allegations as "factually incorrect". But concerns regarding future breaches have arisen from what has been deemed to be a light penalty for Red Bull, which was given a $7 million fine and a 10 per cent aerodynamic testing reduction, with the Milton Keynes-based outfit extending its dominance over the rest of the field. Asked how concerned he was by the chance for teams to decide an overspend is worth it because of the apparent leniency in the punishments, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 : "It is definitely a concern. "It wasn't really a big punishment last time, so there will be people who will go for it again and know they will just get a slap on the wrist."
Mercedes moving 'slowly' forwards
While Red Bull has exerted its command on the rest of the F1 field, the race for best of the rest has yo-yoed between Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari across the opening 10 events. McLaren took the trio by surprise with a stunning upgrade package to finish second at the British Grand Prix. On whether he felt Mercedes was fluctuating in its performance, Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365 : "I don't feel like we have been going forwards and backwards. "I think we have been going slowly forwards, but others have been going forwards as well and some people taking bigger steps forwards than us. "But the positive thing is that we are going forwards. We are working away to make bigger steps."
Most read
