“It wasn’t a big penalty”: Lewis Hamilton suspects Red Bull’s cost-cap penalty provides incentive for more F1 teams to break it

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has stated that the financial and sporting penalties levied on Red Bull for breaching the cost cap last season wasn't big enough.

There have been several reports that some teams may have breached the cost cap once again this season in their bid to move up the grid. Last year, the Austrian team, according to many teams, had gotten off easy and did not get a heavy penalty on their CFD time.

Speaking with the media including Sky F1, Lewis Hamilton said teams breaching cost cap might be a "concern." He said:

"Yes, it’s definitely a concern. I mean, it wasn’t really a big punishment last time so there’s no real [deterrent]. There’ll be people that will probably go for it again, and know they’re just gonna get slapped on the wrist. It’s not my job to do that. But we have people in place who are supposed to police that."

He added:

"But it doesn’t surprise me because it was not a big penalty before. I don’t think it did anyways. The penalty didn’t cost them anything. Definitely. Definitely, definitely didn’t. It was so small!”

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali also added on the subject:

“I would like the penalty to be sporting in case of infringement, it is something we asked for very clearly. There are three regulations to be respected: sporting, technical and financial. Any infractions must be punished with sporting measures. You can’t go in other directions.”

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Lewis Hamilton gives his take on Red Bull sacking Nyck de Vries

Lewis Hamilton stated that Red Bull sacking Nyck de Vries from AlphaTauri last week was another example of how "the team works."

As per Autosport, the seven-time world champion said:

“Yes. But that's how Red Bull do it. You can say that's how Red Bull works. I was definitely surprised to see the decision for poor Nyck. He's such a talented young man, and such a nice guy as well. I think the future is still bright for him and he will have lots of great options for the future.”

He added:

“He has been here all year. He's been in every drivers' briefing this year. He was in the drivers’ briefings, but not been actually competing, which is rare. You don't normally see a reserve driver in the drivers' briefing, but I think I'm not surprised to see him back.”

It will be interesting to see if Red Bull makes any statements on Lewis Hamilton's comments about them.