Sergio Perez was given a formal warning by Abu Dhabi GP race stewards after the Red Bull driver criticised them for giving him a podium-losing penalty for colliding with McLaren's Lando Norris.
Perez is thought to have called the stewards' panel "a joke" over Red Bull team radio after the race after their decision dropped him from what was second on the road at the finish to fourth place.
The Mexican driver was summoned to stewards to explain his comments afterwards and while they said in their later ruling on the issue that while "they had no issue with someone disagreeing with their decisions, comments that amount to personal insults are a breach of the International Sporting Code".
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"The driver made a genuine and sincere apology to each of the stewards and explained that he made the comments in the heat of the moment and did not consider the fact that they would be broadcast, and the impact of that," added a statement.
"He expressed his regret that his comments caused offence to anyone or harm to the sport, which he said he was concerned to avoid.
"The stewards accept his statements and accept his apology."
What happened in the Perez-Norris incident?
Battling over fourth place heading into the race's closing dozen laps, the Red Bull and McLaren drivers made contact at Turn Six as Perez went down the inside of Norris under braking for the chicane.
Stewards soon ruled that Perez caused the contact and handed him a five-second time penalty.
The sanction proved costly as the Mexican, on fresher tyres and with superior pace, overtook George Russell to move into third place several laps later.
Perez then moved up another place on the final lap as, in a tactical ploy amid Ferrari's attempt to beat Mercedes to second in the Constructors' Championship, Charles Leclerc let him through to second in the hope that the Red Bull driver would build a five-second gap over Russell so to only drop to third, and not fourth behind the Briton, when his penalty was applied at the end of the race.
Had Leclerc's tactic succeeded then Ferrari and not Mercedes would have taken second in the standings. Instead, Perez only pulled 3.9s clear of Russell, meaning he was shuffled back to fourth in the final classification.
Having lost out on what would have been only his second podium finish in the season's final eight events, an unimpressed Perez told Sky Sports F1: "I think the stewards were very poor today in my opinion.
"We've seen a lot worse, we touched tyre to tyre, Lando cut the corner and I still had the penalty."
Perez added: "You've got to remember when you drive from behind you go into the brakes late, you are not in full control of the car.
"Lando knew I was there, he decides to turn in, we made contact tyre to tyre as I said. I just feel in my honest opinion, it's a racing incident."
What the stewards ruled
Coming into Turn 6, notwithstanding that Car 11 [Perez] was alongside Car 4 [Norris], the driver of Car 11 dived in late, missed the apex of the corner and understeered towards the outside of the corner colliding with Car 4.
In addition to issuing the time penalty, stewards added two points to Perez's superlicence, taking him up to seven of a maximum 12 over a 12-month period.
Norris, meanwhile, saw it similarly to the stewards.
"I tried to let the guy go and he crashed into me!" said Norris, who finished fifth to help secure McLaren fourth in the standings.
"I don't know what he was doing, a bit careless to be honest."
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