Sebastian Vettel has labelled the FIA’s latest radio regulations revamp a ‘complete joke’ ahead of its introduction at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver has been particularly vocal regarding the imposed radio ban this season and is adamant the regulations should be removed.
Vettel’s latest attack on the regulations arrives after the FIA elected to tighten the restrictions following Mercedes’ much publicised breach of the rules at the British Grand Prix.
From this weekend teams will have to instruct drivers to return to the pits if a car suffers a critical problem, where instructions can be given and a fix implemented.
Upon learning the latest rule tweak, the four-time world champion believes the sport is going in the wrong direction.
The radio ban was initially introduced to stop engineers coaching drivers on how to drive the cars.
“Complete bullshit! All the radio issues we have are a joke,” said Vettel in a media briefing at the Hungaroring.
“I looked at the race (British GP) 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.”
The move has been met with negativity from a host drivers including Williams’ Valtteri Bottas who believes the new rules offer a far stronger punishment than the 10 second penalty awarded to Nico Rosberg at Silverstone.
“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.”
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