Lewis Hamilton was subjected to racist abuse at last year's Chinese Grand Prix, according to FIA president Max Mosley.

After last weekend's Barcelona test, at which numerous groups of Fernando Alonso fans blacked themselves up with paint and hung up banners with racist slogans against the British driver, Mosley revealed that it had happened before.

"Anthony Hamilton [Lewis' father] told me that there were some people in China who were also appallingly abusive; not Chinese fans, but people who had travelled from Spain," Mosley told the Sunday Times newspaper.

The FIA warned the Spanish motorsport federation that its circuits could be stripped of the two Grands Prix currently staged in the country if the scenes at Barcelona were repeated.

And he has now joined the Federation in letting the race fans know that they could even face criminal punishments if found carrying out similar abuse in the future.

"If they went to Australia and did something like that, they could get arrested and we would know their names and passport numbers and they wouldn't get into another country," Mosley added.

"We will do everything we can to stamp this out, we will do whatever it takes.

"If, as appears to be the case, a very small number of people are involved, it ought to be possible to stop it immediately," he added.

"If it isn't, then we have sanctions and we could pull the Grand Prix."

Hamilton, 23, who became Formula One's first black driver last season, won four times in his rookie season and finished second in the world championship.

But he gained notoriety in Spain after his rivalry with team-mate Fernando Alonso turned bitter at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and became hated when the latter - a hero in his homeland - was forced out of the McLaren team to join Renault.

Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport