“The worrying thing for me is that the stewards are really getting too involved in trying to control what the drivers are doing. The stewards should only start getting involved when something really serious occurs.”

STR co-owner Gerhard Berger, meanwhile, has stepped in to defend his driver Bourdais – who is under pressure to maintain his seat at the small Faenza-based concern in the top flight in 2009 – and claims 'too many penalties' are being handed out this year.

“Bourdais was on the inside, Massa on the outside, and if [Massa] had given him two centimetres more space, they both would have effortlessly made the corner,” the ten-time grand prix-winner is quoted by F1SA as having told Dutch website racefreaks.nl.

“It is a matter of fact that nothing particularly happened to either of them. Two cars touching each other is nothing peculiar in the world of racing.”

Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management company has released in-car footage of each of the incidents at Fuji. Watch it by clicking here