Lauda critical of Raikkonen's driving after British GP accident

Raikkonen went wide onto the run-off through the Aintree kink and then lost control of his Ferrari as he rejoined further down the Wellington Straight.

The big impact caused barrier damage that required a one-hour repair.

Mercedes F1 team non-executive chairman Lauda said Raikkonen had to accept responsibility for rejoining the track in the way that he did.

"One criticism I have is that Kimi made a mistake," said Lauda.

"He went wide, so why does he come in balls out and then crash?

"Hopefully nothing happened [to hurt him], but it was unnecessary."

Lauda also felt the time that the barrier repair took was unacceptable.

He suggested that the FIA should have considered a quicker temporary fix, such as a tyre barrier in front of the guardrail.

"Why then did we stop for one hour to fix one bottom guardrail? There should have been a quicker fix, and a quicker fix could mean put some tyres in front. There are other ways of doing this," he said.

Lauda argued it was another example of F1 being too obsessed with rules and regulations at the expense of common sense.

"This over nursing of F1, being over cautious, over-controlling, drives me mad. And this little guardrail issue is another example," he said.

"There are too many people involved in making F1 as safe as the roads, which is wrong.

"They should have fixed it quickly, do something instantly and then 10-15 minutes later the race would have gone on.

"There is no way that another car would hit in the same place that guardrail. The delays we have now, nursing the guys, not crossing the white line here, being four seconds back, it is all wrong and this should be stopped.

"I have talked to Bernie [Ecclestone] about it and he fully agrees. We have to go back to normal racing."