Raikkonen: Vettel penalty 'odd' given F1's 'let them race' policy

A more 'hands-off' approach to racing incidents had been discussed between FIA stewards and drivers in a meeting at the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier this year.

Raikkonen said there was a disparity between that stance and decisions including penalising Vettel for how he rejoined the track during his Canadian GP lead battle with Lewis Hamilton.

"The odd thing is that they keep telling us this year that we're more free to race," said Raikkonen.

"And then this kind of thing happens, which is absolutely no one's fault, and people get penalised.

"What has been said, what's been done, somewhere along the line they don't match always.

"I guess the stewards are in a difficult position, and whichever way they give the ruling on many things there are always going to be happy and unhappy teams."

Asked by Autosport if he would like to see more freedom, Raikkonen added: "That's what's been said, that's what's been told to us. But if you look at some things, it's definitely not quite right. Yeah, freedom in a smart way.

"But when you start pushing obviously somebody off, or doing something stupid - I think as drivers we all know, or should know at least, what is fair and you can accept, and there are other things that are not. As long as there's fair fighting, it's OK."

Raikkonen's fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas agreed with that approach.

"I'm a big fan of hard racing, but obviously fair racing as well," said the Mercedes driver.

"Sometimes I'm wondering why there's always need to always give a penalty to one party if there's, for example, a collision with two cars. That's my view obviously.

"But obviously there are rules and we need to stick with those and to be fair.

"In general, I like hard racing, sometimes it would be nice to get and see less penalties."

Haas's Kevin Magnussen suggested that drivers should be allowed to "get on with it a bit more," particularly given modern safety standards.

"Sometimes you get penalised and think 'what was the point?'," he said.

"It's because there are these rules and they want to try to be consistent, so they want to penalise things that seem like a small thing.

"The small things have to be penalised if you have those rules.

"You can't only have the high-profile incidents. That's why I think they should let us get on with it a bit more.

"I'm not saying we should compromise safety, but I don't think there's a safety issue at all.

"I think it's very safe, the cars are so safe. You can hit the wall like I did in Montreal and it doesn't even hurt.

"It's so safe they can let us race a little more and it's not going to be a safety issue.

"I'd be interested to see what people would have thought of Sebastian if he'd have rejoined the track and let Lewis past like 'here you go mate, have that one, I made a mistake'.

"That would have been ugly as well. A lot of people at home would have said 'what was he doing?'

"But that would have been the right thing, I guess."

Vettel, the man at the centre of the current controversy, said the drivers just want to see consistency.

"Obviously the GPDA [Grand Prix Drivers' Association] speaks on behalf of all the drivers," said the four-time world champion.

"And I think we've expressed more than once that what we want is consistency with the decisions.

"Obviously we appreciate that it's not always easy, not every case is black and white, but that's why we asked to let us race, to give us room and so on, which I think is what we want and ultimately what everybody wants."