Mosley plays down Hamilton success

LONDON, England -- Motor sport boss Max Mosley has played down the effect that British driver Lewis Hamilton had on Formula One in his debut season this year.

The 22-year-old, the sport's first black driver, went into the final race in Brazil seeking to become the youngest world champion but missed out to Kimi Raikkonen by one point after a gearbox failure hampered his efforts.

He filled headlines all year due to his unexpected on-track success and the off-circuit controversies which enveloped his team McLaren, giving F1 a new superstar following the retirement of Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton has become such a high-profile name that he has decided to leave Britain and move to Switzerland for a quieter life, even though his home town of Stevenage is about to name one of its streets after him.

But Mosley, president of world governing body the FIA, said that any other young driver could have made such an impact.

"He has certainly helped enormously in the UK," he told the BBC's Hardtalk program. "He's also got a lot of interest worldwide because he's come manifestly not from a rich background. He's just made it.

"There is always somebody new. If it wasn't him it would be either Nico Rosberg or Robert Kubica or one of the other new stars, a Sebastian Vettel, they would suddenly be the big one.

"So I think there is a tendency to exaggerate the importance of Lewis Hamilton.

"If he does the same thing next season as he's done this season, it will certainly have a big effect.

"It will start to be negative because we'll get the Schumacher effect where people start writing to me saying 'Can't you do something to slow him down'."

McLaren's appeal against the outcome of the final race in Sao Paulo will be heard on November 15, but Mosley said that even if the Williams and BMW Sauber teams are punished for fuel irregularities, it may not mean that Hamilton will be awarded more points and therefore take the world title.

"It could happen, absolutely, because this will go to a court of appeal. That said, it's very unlikely, because even if they excluded those cars they are not obliged to reclassify Hamilton. There's absolutely no need, if they don't wish to, to change the position that Hamilton was in," Mosley said.

Source: edition.cnn.com