Wrong to rubbish Hamilton: Ecclestone

“People have been wrong to rubbish Lewis,” Ecclestone told the Independent newspaper on Thursday when asked about his fellow-Briton.

“What we want is people racing, and all the people who watch it want that. If you analyse what's been happening and how other drivers have been performing, Lewis shows up very well, and so do Sebastian (Vettel) and Jenson (Button).

“So let him race. That's what people like him do. I was very, very good friends with Senna, and if you look at what he did, he was a racer too, and people had to move over for him,” said the 80-year-old.

Hamilton has been involved in numerous scrapes and controversies this season, most recently retiring in Canada at the weekend after his car was damaged in a collision with team-mate Button.

At the previous race in Monaco, he had collided with Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Williams' Venezuelan rookie Pastor Maldonado.

Austria's retired triple champion Niki Lauda, another of Ecclestone's close circle who is now a television pundit, said after the race in Montreal that Hamilton was 'completely mad' and could kill someone if he carried on in such a reckless manner. “Perhaps Lewis has made one or two questionable moves, but so have many of the others, and nobody bothers to look what's happening further down the field,” said Ecclestone.

“It's always been like this. We saw a lot of people racing in Canada on Sunday, and Jenson did a super job. That's what the fans want to see.”

Button also defended Hamilton's driving after Sunday's race.