Talking to BBC's Hardtalk, FIA President Max Mosley has warned that should Lewis Hamilton go on to dominate F1 in the same way as Michael Schumacher, it could ultimately prove negative for the sport.

"If he does the same thing next season as he's done this season, it will certainly have a big effect," he said of Hamilton, who in his rookie season finished runner-up (unless there's something Max knows that we don't) in the World Championship, having scored four wins, and points in all but two races.

"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'," said Mosley, who also denied that the 'Hamilton effect' is a global phenomenon.

"He has certainly helped enormously in the UK," said the Englishman. "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," he continued. "If it wasn't him it would be either Rosberg or Kubica or one of the other new stars, a Vettel, would suddenly be the big one. So I think there is a tendency to exaggerate the importance of Lewis Hamilton."

The FIA President admitted that it was unlikely that Hamilton will 'win' the championship by default next month when the International court of Appeal hears McLaren's case regarding the stewards' decision in Brazil.

"It could happen, absolutely, because this will go to a court of appeal," he said. "It consists of very senior lawyers who are not connected with any of the countries involved in the events, so not Britain, not Italy and so on. It's an independent court. It can decide.

"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."