Sebastian Vettel has played down the nature of his recent radio communication with Ferrari, after a terse exchange during the Spanish Grand Prix.
Vettel crept into the points as rivals made a second stop and he enquired regarding the approach he needed to take with his tyres.
After a wait Vettel was told to try and preserve his tyres, prompting a frustrated response, but he held on to record seventh position, leading home a train of midfield opponents.
It comes after he queried Ferrari’s strategy at the second Silverstone race, as well as several examples of limited car-to-team communication at the end of sessions.
“There’s always things you can do better,” said Vettel.
“I think it’s very easy to know a lot of things that you could have done or should have done but I think the important thing is that we agreed to take that risk and obviously it did play out.
“Where we were, I didn’t think we had much to lose. I think it’s normal to communicate.
“I think it’s very weird for you to judge because you don’t get all the radio transmissions. I think it’s very difficult for you to know what is being said and to get the full picture. I think it was nothing else outstanding.”
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto conceded he was “quite surprised” to hear of rumours of discord between team and driver and that “we are not changing any different type of tone or whatever.”
“Sometimes questioning doesn’t mean that it’s a misunderstanding,” Binotto stressed.
“I think questioning ourselves by communicating is important finally to get the right choice.
“I felt that the last few races we made the right choice, sometimes lucky as Seb said but at least we came to the choice because we are communicating.
“To be open on the radio, when you’re in the midfield, sometimes it’s difficult but just making sure at least just by questioning, again, we make the proper decision.”
