Rubens Barrichello has been critical of McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton over the Briton's defensive driving during the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was given a warning by the race stewards after he weaved on the main straight to stop Renault's Vitaly Petrov from overtaking. The move was criticized by Barrichello, who reckons Hamilton broke the rule of not making more than one move to defend his position.
"I don't think this is the right thing to do," said Barrichello in China on Thursday. "When I saw it I was by myself watching the TV and I was quite critical of it. If he was beside me, I would have given him some bollocking, because it wasn't right.
"There are arguments to cover that, to say that he was under acceleration, not in the braking area. There are so many things that they could come up with, but the drivers have an agreement, sort of an agreement, obviously a verbal agreement, nothing that has been signed, that you should move only once during the protection of your line. So that, for me, was a Formula Ford thing. It shouldn't have been done, to be honest."
Renault driver Robert Kubica suggested Hamilton should have been given a penalty at Sepang, stating that the rules regarding that kind of move are clear.
"Reading the regulations, I'm clear. Watching Malaysia, I'm not so clear," said Kubica.
The Pole, however, made it clear Hamilton's move was not the only dangerous one during the Malaysian race.
"I think there were too many moves during that race – not only from one driver. I don't think it was only one driver who did more than one move. It's important that you don't move when you are side by side. For example, in F3 or something like this there was no rule saying you are not able weave in a straight line. In F1, it looks like there is a rule. But I don't want to go into the details too much."
Red Bull's Mark Webber noted that defensive driving can be a slippery thing to define.
"Breaking a tow is defensive driving in a way," said the Australian. "I have done loads of categories where we did used to go down the straights like chicanes and try and block – and I don't know how much of an effect it has. But it certainly makes it a bit more unpredictable for the guy behind you, at least. Having less of a tow is another subject, but it does make it more difficult for the guy who is chasing you. I think that the cars are very quick on the straights now, and have been for the past 20 years. But the level of aggressiveness has changed from the '80s until now, and probably for the benefit of safety – but to the detriment of hard racing.
"I've come under some criticism over the years for being a little too hard at times, in terms of when you move. As I know I only have one move, it is a question of when you make that one move. The last thing you want is guys actually hitting rear tires and going in the air. That is what we are trying to avoid. It is hard enough trying to overtake as it is, so if we are going to go down the straights going from line to line, it will be a bit harder. It will blow over and there will be nothing to do."
Webber added that he expected the question to come up at the drivers' briefing this weekend.
"I think it will be tidied up in the drivers' briefing – and you won't see Lewis doing that again in a hurry," Webber said. "He got a bit of a Chinese burn at the time, and it is good in some ways that the stewards are giving us a bit of leeway. There is always a fine line with hard, hard, hard rules – like for example my drive-through at the Nurburgring where they dealt with me, or other things where people got nailed, like [Sebastien] Bourdais at Fuji with [Felipe] Massa and things like that. We've had different ones like that. That was a new style, if you like, going down the straight like that – and one that I think will be tidied up."