Why have a cost cap? Lewis Hamilton piles pressure for harsh Red Bull penalty

Lewis Hamilton has questioned the need for a cost cap if teams that breach regulations are not dealt with severely to curb other teams from following suit. The Mercedes driver piled further pressure on the FIA to act accordingly, and treat the matter seriously rather than just handing a monetary penalty to perpetrators.

Red Bull Racing were found guilty of breaching the $145 million cost cap in 2021. The FIA made their findings public a day after the Japanese Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen was crowned the 2022 Formula 1 Drivers' champion.

The governing body, however, are yet to reveal any possible penalties the Austrian team will face. A number of teams have called on the FIA to take a serious view of the charges, and hand down a penalty befitting the crime with McLaren CEO Zak Brown claiming that the breach is tantamount to cheating.

Hamilton has now piled the pressure on the FIA to take serious action against Red Bull. The seven-time world champion, who lost the 2021 title to Verstappen in the final race, feels a "relaxed" penalty will tempt other teams to go over the cost cap in the hope of gaining an advantage in the championship.

"I do think the sport needs to do something about this," Hamilton said ahead of the United States GP in Austin, as quoted on Autosport. "Otherwise, if it's quite relaxed, if they're relaxed with these rules, then all the teams will just go over."

"And spending millions more and then only having a slap on the wrist is obviously not going to be great for the sport. They might as well not have a cost cap for the future [in that case]," he added.

While there has been uproar from teams like Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari about Red Bull's cost cap breach, the Austrian team has firmly denied any wrongdoing. Christian Horner is confident his team will be cleared, with the investigations still underway before a penalty is handed out.

Verstappen, meanwhile, has also been in a good mood around the Circuit of the Americas after claiming his second title at the previous race in Suzuka. The Dutch racer feels it is the nature of F1 for competing teams to turn on a team that is leading the pack in a bid to slow them down.

"Nothing has been confirmed yet but as a team, we know what we have to deal with and I think we were very clear on what we think was correct," Verstappen said Thursday.

"I think it's mainly because of course we have been doing well – they try to slow us down in any way possible. That's how F1 works as well, everyone at the end of the day is a bit hypocritical. I'm fine with that. We just have to focus on our job," he added.