Christian Horner and Daniel Ricciardo react to Sebastian Vettel's expletive-laden tirade at Mexico Grand Prix

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner and driver Daniel Ricciardo have reacted to Sebastian Vettel's foul-mouthed rant during the recent Mexico Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver was incensed after Max Verstappen refused to yield third place after gaining an advantage by leaving the track and in the heat of the moment – which is an easy excuse according to the Australian driver – let rip at the Dutch driver and race director Charlie Whiting.

The Red Bull chief expects the German driver to be reprimanded for his rant telling FIA race director Charlie Whiting, who has been involved in the sport for over three decades to "f**k off". Horner feels that his latest outburst stems from his frustration over a difficult season, which saw Ferrari start as favourites to challenge Mercedes, but fell behind Red Bull in terms of being the closest challengers to the Silver Arrows team.

"Of course in the heat of the moment there's always going to be emotion from the drivers. In other sports, I'm sure if football players had microphones on their language would be an awful lot bluer than what's going out on the track. But in any sport what you can't do is give abuse to the referee, essentially. So I would be surprised if that went unreprimanded," Horner said as quoted on ESPN F1.

"It is not an attribute that he had when he drove for us. Obviously his frustration is vocalising, and everyone can hear that," the Red Bull chief added.

Vettel's former teammate Ricciardo has echoed his team principal's comments and feels that the Ferrari driver went a little too far with his expletive-laden comments. It was not the first time the German has used bad language on radio – he was forgiven by Fernando Alonso for calling the Spaniard an idiot during practice for the Mexico GP.

The Australian driver admits that it is easy to use bad language and go on a tirade in the "heat of the moment", but a driver needs to be sensible as they know it will be broadcast to viewers across the world. He also believes Vettel's recent behaviour is stemming from his frustrations of the ongoing season, where Ferrari are yet to win a race after being touted as favourites to challenge Mercedes for the title at the start of the season.

"In the moment it's easy just to press that radio button and say a whole load of things, but we all know that it can get broadcast. Trust me, I would say twice as much, but I tend to say a few things to myself and then press the radio button," Ricciardo said, as quoted by ESPN F1.

"I think he's obviously a bit frustrated with how the season has gone and he probably thought they had a chance to fight Mercedes and it hasn't worked like that. We've seen him get frustrated by some things in the past, but it's probably been a bit more uncharacteristic this year and probably been a bit too much.

"There is a lot which from one side you need to say 'heat of the moment', you have to be a bit lenient with it. But if your instinct is to hit the radio button and start spurting a whole lot of stuff, you have to be more sensible than that," the Australian added.

"You don't need to broadcast it, you can swear in your helmet and then speak your mind more relaxed a few moments later."