Mosley hails Hamilton's contribution to F1

The FIA president believes Hamilton's emergence has attracted new fans to the sport, and not just in his UK homeland.

"You notice there's a whole new public who are interested in Formula One, both in the UK, but even more so abroad, in all sorts of countries," Mosley told the BBC.

"Because, thanks to Lewis, it's no longer seen as a white elitist sport. It has that image, inevitably, because it's so expensive to get into.

"He's changed all of that. He's come from a pretty ordinary background, he's black and he's very successful.

"For us, if he's successful, it will be excellent, really, really good for Formula One. But that doesn't mean we're going to help him, and it certainly doesn't mean we're going to hinder him."

The FIA was criticised after Hamilton lost the Belgian Grand Prix due to a post-race penalty for not sufficiently conceding the lead after cutting a chicane, and the subsequent rejection of McLaren's appeal against the punishment led to suggestions in some quarters that the governing body was favouring McLaren's title rivals Ferrari.

But Mosley argued that the facts did not support this allegation.

"One's seen that over and over again," he said. "What happens is the bloggers notice if something happens that say disadvantages McLaren or Renault. They don't notice with Ferrari.

"The mechanics on (Kimi) Raikkonen's car in Monaco this year were a few seconds too long on the grid changing his tyres and he got given a drivethrough. A drivethrough in Monaco, well that's it normally, and nobody noticed.

"Now if we'd done that to, for example, Lewis Hamilton, there would've been absolute uproar in Britain. Not in Italy, but in Britain. This time there was uproar in Italy, but not in Britain.

"It's the problem of the referee, you're never right. It's just a question of how much you annoy everybody, but you have to live with that."