Daniel Ricciardo calls for minimum F1 VSC speed after Austin issue

Leader Lewis Hamilton bunched up the field and allowed the sister Mercedes of Nico Rosberg in fourth to catch Red Bull pair Daniil Kvyat and Ricciardo.

Asked if there should be a minimum speed limit to stop drivers backing up the field, Ricciardo said: "I think there is something we could do better.

"It is the first year of it so we are trying to understand what works and what doesn't, but it is nice to find little hurdles, it's the only way we can improve it.

"We will get more opinions in the drivers' briefing and get a minimum.

"I know Rosberg caught us as a pack because we were positive, I think four or five seconds slower [than the prescribed delta time], so that was already bad.

"They need to put something in to stop us from doing that [bunching the field up]. I think the minimum will be proposed."

When normal racing resumed, Ricciardo was jumped by Rosberg but he insisted he did not get a warning to say the VSC was ending.

"I have never really had it in the past but I didn't get anything that race, but I don't know if that is an internal thing or an issue with the VSC itself."

Kvyat agreed the current system is not completely fair, but believes it can be remedied relatively easily.

"As we have seen, there can be a bit of unfairness," he said.

"We suddenly found Nico being quite far away from us and suddenly he was on our tail.

"Lewis was leading, he wasn't really following his target so all the guys behind started to catch.

"I think we will get clarification from Charlie [Whiting], this was my impression so far.

"It's not a big deal, it's very easily corrected."

When asked about the virtual safety car situation at Austin, Hamilton said: "It's not the easiest thing to stay to the delta, but it's the same for everyone and we do our best."

McLaren's Fernando Alonso suggested taking any possible advantage from the VSC system was just part of racing.

"I don't think it is a big issue," he said.

"I know in Austin it was a little bit extreme because we had many of them and we were always in a group of cars.

"We have to sit down with the race director and find little tweaks if we can.

"It's like all the rules, you need to be spot on, focused and clever.

"Whatever solution we find, there will always be a tweak someone will exploit."