Lewis Hamilton says a mere "slap on the wrist" by the FIA for teams breaching F1's financial regulations would render the sport's cost cap policy useless.
Red Bull Racing has been found guilty by the FIA of a procedural and 'minor' breach of F1's mandatory $145 million cost cap that was in force in 2021.
The team's overspend is allegedly in the region of $1.8 million, and team boss Christian Horner is adamant that his outfit's accounts are in line with F1's financial regulations.
The governing body is reportedly in talks with Red Bull Racing over the latter accepting its transgression and an associated penalty which could take the form of a fine and/or a sporting sanction, like the team being stripped of championship points or suffering a reduction in wind-tunnel hours.
Nevertheless, McLaren boss Zak Brown has written a letter to the FIA, urging the latter to consider Red Bull's overspend as an act that "constitutes cheating" that should be met with an appropriate punishment.
Many teams are on the same page as the McLaren boss, and on Thursday at COTA, Hamilton also hoped that the FIA would deal with the matter diligently.
"I do think the sport needs to do something about this," said the Mercedes driver. "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]."
Hamilton expressed his faith in the FIA making "the right decisions" to ensure its integrity and that of F1 as a whole.
"Like I've said in the past, the integrity of the sport is where I think the decisions that hopefully will be made will be the right ones by Mohammed and his team. I have to believe that," said the seven-time F1 world champion.
"I want to give them [the FIA] the benefit of the doubt, naturally. And otherwise, I’m just focused on doing the best job I can. What they have done, it’s done."
Like many of his colleagues, Hamilton has called for transparency on the part of the FIA and for the latter to remain "true to the values of the sport and the regulations that were put there to be policed."
"I think it can be a confusing time for fans," added the Briton.
"Without the fans, the sport is nothing. So yeah. I think we’ve just got to hold on to those values."
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