Lewis Hamilton: Max Verstappen has ‘got away’ with F1 racing rule grey areas

Lewis Hamilton believes Max Verstappen has “got away” with escaping penalties in battles with his rivals “for so long” due to grey areas in F1’s racing rules. 

F1’s racing guidelines have been thrown into the spotlight after Verstappen and title rival Lando Norris’s controversial clash during the closing stages of last weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

Norris lost a podium finish when he was hit with a five-second time penalty for gaining a lasting advantage by overtaking Verstappen outside of the track after both drivers ran wide when duelling for the lead with four laps to go.

George Russell and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda both picked up the same penalty for pushing rivals wide during the grand prix, but Verstappen escaped punishment for running Norris off track at the start of the race at Turn 1.

The inconsistencies in the stewarding decisions at COTA have led to several drivers calling for F1 to introduce a panel of permanent stewards.

“It’s always been a grey area, that’s why he’s got away with it for so long,” Hamilton told media including Crash.net in Mexico City. “They probably need to make some adjustments for sure.

"Also, we do have inconsistencies through rulings, weekend in, weekend out, obviously depending on which years it is. I mean, as a sport, we do need to level up on all areas and if you look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.

“I experienced it many times with Max, you shouldn’t be able to just launch the car on the inside and be ahead and then you go off and still hold your position. So, they need to definitely work on this.”

Russell echoed Hamilton’s view and revealed the drivers had already planned to discuss a number of topics following Friday’s drivers’ briefing in Mexico prior to the contentious weekend in Austin.

“At the end of the day, the stewards are doing the best job they can. They’re trying their hardest, and they do have a set of guidelines which they follow,” Russell said.

“The only way you can have consistency is if you have the same stewards at every single race weekend. And at the moment, they are very experienced, but they are here as almost volunteers.

“It is not a professionally paid job, and if you look at football as an example, even though there is still controversy, a referee, they are professionals and that is their full-time job.

“That is where they make their income. As the sport we are at the moment, that’s probably the direction we should be heading.”