Daniel Ricciardo says he will be better with his choice of words in future after describing Formula 1 as “f***ing idiots” for the way its social team promotes crashes.

The Australian was extremely vocal over the coverage of Romain Grosjean’s horrific incident at the Bahrain Grand Prix last year, and in a recent interview with Square Mile, he hit out at the content being selected by its social media team, too.

“I think last year, F1 put on their social channels, like, ‘top 10 moments of the year’ or something, and eight of the 10 were crashes,” Ricciardo was quoted as saying. “I was just like, you guys are f***ing idiots. Maybe 12-year-old kids want to see that kind of content, and that’s cool because they don’t know any better, but we’re not kids. Just do better, guys. Do better than that.”

After Grosjean’s crash, Ricciardo voiced his concerns to F1 and when asked by RACER if he would be doing similarly after his latest comments, he admitted he wished he’d used different language.

“I certainly have to be better with my choice of words. If I could take that quote back, I would. It was too aggressive. I should know better as well, being in the sport as long as I have. And even if I feel at the time that it might be out of context, I know that it is going to get pushed. So I should do better with that.

“Taking that direct comment away from it, I guess what I’m trying to get at is that I feel like…last year as an example. I felt last year was such an amazing year for F1. There were so many different podium getters, there were a lot of exciting races. I certainly would not put it under a boring season.

“I just felt like there was probably more room to expose the highs of the sport. And the great achievements of a lot of individual drivers and individual performances, some spectacular overtakes — I felt that there were better stories to be told, as opposed to just crashes. This is obviously my opinion but I feel that our sport is better than that. I feel that we are better than just showing crashes.

“Whether it is other categories or types of sports or disciplines to show I would say that level of highlights, I feel that we are above that. I feel that we are the most talented drivers in the world, and we are driving these amazing cars. So normally a crash is showing less of our talents.

“I feel it is probably the way the sport is perceived, and we are perceived as drivers. We absolutely make mistakes but I would probably highlight the highs more if I had creative control. I don’t know if every other driver feels like that, but obviously it is how I feel. I have apologized, but I would take back at least the language from those comments. That was overall my opinion of what I would do if I had a chance to direct it a little bit.”