Lewis Hamilton issues FIA demand as F1 bump up maximum driver fine to near £1m

Lewis Hamilton has called for the FIA to ensure that fines racked up by F1 drivers “go to a good cause” after the governing body quadrupled the amount that they can fine stars - with the maximum punishment for one offence now £880,000. Several drivers expressed their disbelief ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, while the Mercedes star had one caveat for the new regulations.

The change to the International Sporting Code (ISC) was approved at a meeting of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council in Geneva after it was deemed that the previous maximum of £218,000 “does not reflect the current needs of motorsport” having not been increased in 12 years.

Hamilton was recently fined £43,600 for crossing a live track at the Qatar GP in an incident that was revisited by the FIA, but had just one request for the governing body as he hoped that the money recouped from fines would be used to help budding motorsport drivers.

"If they are going to be fining a million, let's make sure that 100 per cent of that goes to a cause," Hamilton reacted. "There's a lot of money in this whole industry and there's a lot more we need to do in terms of creating better accessibility, better diversity, more opportunities for people who wouldn't normally have a chance to get into a sport like this. So many causes around the world. So, yeah. That's the only way they'll get that million from me."

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Currently, the money received from fines is spent using the FIA’s Development Funds. That is used to make improvements to on-track security and also train marshals, while supporting medical and crash extrication at grassroots level.

The fines are also used for grants through the Mobility Development Funds and Sport Development Fund which promote road safety initiatives and pay for the commercial rights to use the F1 name as part of a 100-year license.