Hamilton clarifies FIA plea to halt Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton has explained he does not want cycles of Formula 1 dominance to repeat themselves after calling on the FIA to intervene over early car development.

The Mercedes driver indicated he would like F1's governing body to stop teams from starting development work on the following season's car until later in the year, suggesting a potential start date of August 1st.

This is because he feels runaway leaders Red Bull will have already switched attention to its challenger for next year, which could give them an advantage as Mercedes is locked in a battle with Aston Martin for second place in the Constructors' standings.

Hamilton's development thinking

After a retort from Max Verstappen was presented to him, Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365.com: "It's not aimed at any one particular person.

"It's just in my 17 years of being here and before I got here, you've seen a period of time with dominance and it continues to happen.

"So at least, as a sport, I think at some stage [we need to have discussions] - and I was really fortunate to have one of those periods Max is having now - but with the way it's going, it will continue to happen over and over again.

"We don't need that in the sport.

"From my personal experience, when you are so far ahead, 100 points ahead, you don't really need to do a lot more to the car, you can start earlier on the next car.

"With the budget cap, that means spending this year's car money on next year's car, but if everyone kind of had a time that we can start, October is way too late, August 1st is something where no one has a head start.

"Then it's a real race in that short space of time for the future car. I don't know maybe that would help everyone be on a closer level, but I might be wrong.

"Something's got to change, because you're winning World Championships because [teams can] just start earlier than everybody else.

"And then there are teams that weren't competitive, so then they just didn't bother working on that current car.

"They just focus fully on the next year's car from the beginning, and then they turn up next year, but that shouldn't be possible."