LE CASTELLET, France -- Lewis Hamilton says F1's current rule-making process is flawed, as it allows teams to be involved in key decisions about its future.
Hamilton won his fifth race of the current campaign on Sunday at a French Grand Prix low on entertainment. The result extended his lead in the championship to 36 points, but after the race he was defending himself from suggestions that his dominance of F1 is boring.
The five-time world champion has recently taken an active role in helping F1 shape its future, attending a 2021 rules summit in Paris earlier this month, where all 10 teams were present along with F1 chiefs and the FIA, racing's governing body.
"From how it's set up, just from watching when I was there, it's not good," Hamilton said about that process on Sunday evening. "Really not good. They won't like me saying that."
When asked what he meant, he replied: "I think ultimately the FIA, they're the governing body and they need to make all the decisions.
"The teams shouldn't be involved in that, in my opinion, because the teams all want to do something for themselves. That's the natural thing.
"Same in football, if all the teams sat in a room and said sport should be like this, they would push and pull for their own benefit. But if you get central group of people telling us, like the FIA for example, that their sole job is to make the sport great again, hiring individuals or whatever, they should have the power. They should make the decisions."
That Paris meeting led to a delay on the publication of the 2021 rules until October. F1 racing chief Ross Brawn has been tasked with finding a rules package that creates closer racing and a less widely spread playing field, with numerous teams able to win and claim a podium each weekend.
Talk of F1's future doesn't stop at the next set of rules. Hamilton's current boss, Toto Wolff, has been touted as future boss of the championship.
While he admires Wolff's talent as a manager Hamilton thinks F1 needs to be led by someone without any affiliation to an existing team.
"I don't believe there's a better manager [than Wolff] within whole of F1. However, sitting back as a fan, when you sit in the room with people who have to make the ultimate decision, we as humans are, I think, in my opinion, we can be biased.
"You've got [FIA boss] Jean Todt, I know Jean's level, but the fact is he's been with the red team [Ferrari] for so long, surely when he wakes up, if there's a red T-shirt and a silver T-shirt, surely he goes for the red one.
"That's just like when I get out of bed and see [car number] 44 or 6, I will go for 44 and Toto has been Mercedes through and through for such a long period of time, I don't know if there is anything in that.
"If it is a choice of management I think he would be the best, but I think the best is someone from outside who is neutral, if that is possible. But even so, they'll watch it and choose a team that they prefer, that's just how we are you know.
"Look at football -- you're drawn to something. That's how we're tuned."