Sebastian Vettel thinks Max Verstappen will "calm down" with time but believes the Dutch teenager's aggression is one of his major strengths.
Verstappen angered Vettel's Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen in Hungary, defending aggressively on several occasions to keep the Finn at bay in the battle for fifth. Afterwards Raikkonen complained the pair could have collided if he had not taken evasive action and said F1 rule enforcement has become "a joke".
When asked about what he thought, Vettel defended the Red Bull driver's aggression and said too many penalties has made F1 easy to criticise from the outside.
"I think we are here to race, I think one of Max's strengths is that he very aggressive, obviously sometimes he over-stepped the line but I'm against the whole policy of penalties and very complicated ruling," he said. "I think it's silly, people outside are laughing about us. This is something we need to work on. For us, it's a little bit tricky because there is not much we can do about."
Vettel, who lost his record as F1's youngest race winner to Verstappen at this year's Spanish Grand Prix, believes the teenager will mature with age.
"I think [Max] will calm down, give him a bit of time. As I said, it's also one of his strong points. Of course, if you are fighting with him and sometimes the car in front is behaving not fair, it's not great.
"Kimi is one of the fairest drivers in the field but that's how it is sometimes. The race is long, the season is long and I'm sure they'll meet again at some point."