Ecclestone: Hamilton's punishment 'did not fit the crime'

Bernie Ecclestone believes the British GP stewards sanctioned Lewis Hamilton with a punishment that "did not fit the crime" following his crash with Max Verstappen.

The former F1 supremo offered his two cents on the controversial incident that marked F1's round of racing at Silverstone, and while Ecclestone believes the stewards didn't need to get involved, their decision to do so resulted in a penalty that wasn't sever enough according to the 90-year-old.

"In the old days we would have said it was one of those things, a racing incident," Ecclestone told Sportsmail. "It was clear that [both parties] were doing their best to win the championship.

"If you have to give a sanction, which in some ways they didn’t need to, this was not the right decision – it wasn’t enough.

"If the stewards needed to get involved then they should have given Lewis more than a 10-second penalty. It should have been 30 seconds,” added the 90-year-old.

"Lewis was not in front at the point they collided. It wasn’t his corner. He was almost a car’s length behind. That’s why he hit him at the back not the front.

"Ten seconds was not right. The punishment did not fit the crime."

Adding another opinion to the mix, 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill admitted to being surprised by Hamilton's "full on" level of on-track aggression on Sunday.

"I think it was inevitable at some point there was going to be some coming together of the two. It was so aggressive," noted the Briton on the F1 Nation podcast.

"I have never seen Lewis drive that aggressively. I am racking my brains to think of a time. The only time I can come up with is Barcelona with Nico Rosberg.

"It was full-on attack mode and I do wonder whether it was something to do with what had happened the previous day during the sprint where he sort of lost pole position."

• Read also: Red Bull reportedly taps lawyer to probe Silverstone crash

Although everyone and their dog has expressed an opinion on the high-profile crash at Silverstone, Hill conceded that it still wasn't clear which driver was to blame for the debacle.

"I have had more calls and contact with my racing friends and friends of mine who have got an opinion on this, I cannot find... it is 50/50 on either side at the moment," said Hill.

"There is not a clear answer whether it was Lewis who got a penalty or whether Max should have got a penalty.

"They were both incredibly uncompromising and when you put two very, very uncompromising people into a 180mph corner then something is going to happen and it did."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter