Radio ban is a good thing for Formula One insists Jolyon Palmer

Hamilton finished only fifth at the Azerbaijan race after he spent 12 laps desperately trying to resolve the issue which his Mercedes team were forbidden from telling him how to change under Formula One’s strict radio rules.

The world champion described the situation as dangerous as he attempted a number of different settings on his complex steering wheel, while driving at speeds in excess of 220 mph.

Hamilton called for the radio ban, introduced at the start of the season, to be re-addressed by the sport’s governing body, the FIA. Former world champions Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso were also vocal in their support of the Briton, with the former labelling the ban as “a joke”.

But speaking ahead of this week’s Austrian Grand Prix, Palmer said: “The radio ban is really good. Some people don’t know how to change the modes and then they get slower. They should do.

“If you can know what’s going on with your car then it’s an advantage. I genuinely think it’s a good thing for Formula One.

“We have to think a lot more about what’s going on the car. The engineers can always see if something is not right, but they can’t tell you what. They can tell you something in a code that makes you think, but they can’t say what to change. Otherwise the drivers are like robots.”