Lewis Hamilton's shocking appeal to FIA as Red Bull's development plans for 2024 surface

Lewis Hamilton has appealed to the FIA that there needs to be a provision in place that prevents teams from starting development of the next season's car too early. The bone of contention comes from Red Bull Christian Horner's revelation in Canada that the Austrian team had already shifted focus to the 2024 F1 season. This was something that Lewis first spoke about in the post-race conference in Canada before bringing it up once again in Austria.

Talking about the progress that Mercedes is making right now, Lewis Hamilton admitted that there was a certain level of optimism that the team could catch Red Bull this season. However, the British driver was somewhat downbeat as he said that it might not matter in the end as the Austrian squad is already working on their 2024 F1 challenger.

Lewis Hamilton told Sky Sports that the FIA needed to step in and stop teams from starting development on next year's cars this early into a season:

"The car is moving in the right direction, I think ultimately it's likely that bit by bit at the end of the year, we will probably catch Red Bull. But that is probably because they are already focusing on next year's car. They're so far ahead, they don't have to make any changes to this car anymore."

He further added:

"I think the FIA should probably put a time when everyone is allowed to start developing on next year's car. Say August 1, that's where everybody can start so that no one can get an advantage on the next year, cause that sucks. It would make more sense."

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"We never started as early as Red Bull:" Lewis Hamilton

Expanding further in his monologue, Lewis Hamilton claimed that Mercedes had never started the development on their next season's car this early into a season, while Red Bull during Sebastian Vettel's reign (2010-13) and Ferrari in the early 2000s did so often:

"Say, for example, you start the season and you know you have a bad car, you can just say: 'I'm not going to bother developing this car and put all this money into next year's car and have an advantage.' We never started as early as them, and it needs to change because that's why you have dominance for so long and they keep allowing it to happen."

Addressing a similar situation with Ferrari in the past, he said:

"Ferrari was ahead and the same thing happened there, the same with Red Bull and Sebastian [Vettel] back in the day, they start earlier so they're always ahead."

It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction the recent comments from the Mercedes driver generate as it's safe to say that there are some in the paddock that might not agree with this sentiment.