"It's all whispers at the moment"- Lewis Hamilton not giving 'much attention' to Red Bull's alleged F1 budget cap scandal

Lewis Hamilton admits he's not paying too much attention to what has been going on with the F1 budget cap scandal. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, however, has been quite vocal, stating that a paddock 'open secret' about a team overspending its budget in the 2021 F1 season.

Since the Singapore race weekend kicked into gear, these rumors have circulated that Red Bull may be one of the two teams that exceeded the cost cap for the previous season. FIA has, in the interim, issued a statement where it clearly states that the assessment process is still ongoing.

This has, however, not let the rumors die down and has led to a war of words between the team bosses ranging from Christian Horner to Toto Wolff. Lewis Hamilton was questioned about the whole debate in the press conference to which he said that he had not paid much attention to it. The Mercedes driver said,

"I'm not really giving it much attention, to be honest. It's all whispers at the moment, I don't know enough about it to be able to make a sensible comment. I'm not thinking particularly anything. I'm proud of my team for the diligence that they've done to run to the rules."

Lewis Hamilton further added that,

"And I honestly, I have full confidence in Mohammed in the way that he's conducted himself to this point and in terms of being strict and being clear with the rules. The rules are rules and for those sort of things, which can lead to real alterations in terms of car performance, those sorts of things, we definitely have to take it seriously. But as I said, I don't know if it's true or not so we'll see.

It is a very serious issue: Lewis Hamilton's boss

Lewis Hamilton's boss, Toto Wolff, who has been embroiled in a war of words over the weekend, felt that if this was true, it was a very serious issue. Toto said,

"It is a very serious one – if it were to be deemed as true. Team bosses have already commented much too much, because obviously we have been asked the questions. But this is a process that we have no involvement in, we just look after our own finances, we make sure that we provide all the materials to the auditors, and they judge whether we got it right or wrong. And then there is a dialogue that happens, how our interpretation was and why it was and why it wasn’t. It’s just minding our own business. And I think we should probably also calm everything down.”

Lewis Hamilton lost the title to Max Verstappen last season. If Red Bull is found to have overspent, it will be interesting to see if it has any ramifications for what happened during the previous F1 season.