Vettel laments 'whinging and complaining' drivers

Sebastian Vettel believes that the recent increase in penalties during Grand Prix races is due to the 'whinging and complaining' drivers who have spoken out so much about rules that race stewards have taken to implementing stricter policies for dishing out fines.

The driver's championship leader was given a three-place grid penalty at the weekend's Austrian Grand Prix for impeding the run of Carlos Sainz during the second qualifying session on Saturday.

Vettel claims that his Ferrari engineers did not inform him of Sainz coming up the rear, but stewards penalised him for not using his mirrors to detect the situation.

The German reckons the stewards are being much stricter with on-track actions because of the attitude of drivers recently.

"I wasn't told, I tried to look out for him, I don't want to drag on about it, but the rule book's now so fricking big," he said.

"I think it's a result of all the drivers, all of us, I think we've more or less all been there, whinging and complaining, 'oh he's done this, he's done that.' In the end, you should let us sort it out on track, that's my belief."

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Sainz himself also believes that Vettel did not venture in front of his path on purpose, and that it is the duty of the engineers to inform their driver of oncoming cars.

"I feel like this situation is sometimes more the engineers' fault, not the driver's fault, for not letting you know someone is coming," Sainz confessed.

"I must admit if that incident didn't allow me to go into Q3 I would be standing here a lot more angry, a lot more disappointed. But I did such a good lap in Q2 [anyway]."