Vettel blasts F1 radio rules as "complete bullshit"

In the wake of controversy during the British Grand Prix, when a breach of the existing regulations by Mercedes led to a penalty for Nico Rosberg, the FIA introduced a revised set of rules for Hungary.

From now on, any driver informed about a critical problem on his car will be forced to come into the pits in order for the situation to be sorted.

While the changes to the rule have come as a response to teams wishing for a clearer set of guidelines, the ongoing controversy in this area had left Vettel far from happy.

"[It's] complete bullshit. I think all the radio issues we had are a joke," Vettel said ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix

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

"I think it was an element of human being in our sport, which arguably is very complicated and technical.

"I think it's the wrong way. There's a lot of boring stuff on the radio that got banned - so I don't see the point."

Less technology

Vettel insisted that a radio ban was the wrong way to go about making the sport less technical and complicated.

 "If you want to change it, you should change the cars," he said. "I've no problem - let's go back to V12, manual gearbox, two buttons, one for pit speed limiter and one for radio, just to confirm that we're coming in. And other than that, not much electronics to look after - which, there's no point then to memorise all the things.

"I think all the buttons we have on the steering wheel today are there for a reason - it's not like 'ah, yeah, we can build buttons, let's put them on the steering wheel'.

"If you look at the 1995 steering wheel, for example, or speak to a lot of the experts that are still around in the paddock, what they've raced with, it was a lot simpler cause the cars' technology was simpler.

"It's nor our - as in the drivers' - mistake that the cars are so complicated these days that they need a manual and a steering wheel full of buttons to operate it.

"I think we are going a little bit in the wrong way - so I think it's bad and we should just go back to being able to say what we want."

Lewis Hamilton echoed the feeling that it was strange for the FIA to have introduced rules allowing numerous switches - and then outlawing drivers being told how to change them.

"As far as I aware it was about driving aiding and switch changes from the guys who know all the systems, which the FIA have brought into action," he said. "So giving us these actions and dashboards and now not allowing us to be told to change those is a little bit odd.

"But at the end of the day I have to do my job the same way."

Additional reporting by Roberto Chinchero