Sebastian Vettel slams F1 radio rules as 'a joke'

Following Nico Rosberg's penalty for instructions he was given by Mercedes to solve a gearbox problem during the British Grand Prix, the FIA has issued a further technical directive to all the teams ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix highlighting the changes.

Asked by Autosport what he thought of the regulations in place for this weekend, Vettel replied: "Complete bullshit! All the radio issues we have are a joke.

"I looked at the race after and I found, as a spectator, it was quite entertaining to hear a driver panicking a little bit on the radio, and the team panicking at the same time.

"It puts the element of human being into our sport that arguably is very complicated and technical.

"We're going a little bit in the wrong way, and that's why it's bad and we should just go back to being able to say what we want."

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton feels the FIA directive "makes it hopefully clearer for the team".

Hamilton suffered because of the radio ban in Baku when his car was in the wrong engine mode, but he said he "would've lost just as much time" if he had come into the pits to solve it.

"I can't remember how much time I lost in that race," he said.

"It was 13, 15 seconds or something like that, which I would've lost in the pitlane anyway.

"Even if I say I don't like it, it's going to stay the same, so the best way is to deal with it. We're all in the same boat."

Williams's Valtteri Bottas has suggested driving through the pitlane is more of a punishment than staying out on track and exchanging messages, if Rosberg's Silverstone penalty is anything to go by

"Nico got only a 10-second penalty for multiple advices, so I would guess staying on the track and taking a penalty is less of a penalty than coming into the pitlane for advice," said Bottas.

"Unless they [the FIA] are going to change the rule as to how big a penalty they will give you for being on the track, then I don't see the point in coming into the pits."

Haas driver Romain Grosjean added: "We're racing drivers. You don't want to get a 2000-page manual in the car when you're driving.

"If there is a problem you cannot solve, or a technical problem, you come into the pitlane and you can talk and do your stuff and do a pitstop and then you can go again.

"It doesn't take away the spicy things they want in racing, that you cannot be told that you have a problem.

"You have to come into the pitlane and therefore the race will be mixed up."