McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh angrily slammed Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel's driving at the Belgian GP, suggesting that the German's collision with Jenson Button had been driving "reminiscent of a junior formulae".
Whitmarsh hit out after Vettel ended Jenson Button's race on lap 16 of the Belgian Grand Prix. The German lost control of his car in bizarre circumstances while moving around behind Button on the run to the Bus Stop chicane.
He ended up spinning his car and spearing into the side of Button's McLaren, putting the reigning champion out on the spot from second place.
And after the race, Whitmarsh was scathing of Vettel's driving standards during the incident, indicating that he felt the German driver should have been punished more severely than the drive-through penalty he was given.
"It was not what you would expect to see in F1 - more reminiscent of junior formulae," Whitmarsh bellowed after the race, "A drive-through seemed a pretty light punishment to me."
He added that he felt the crash had been "strange", and questioned why Vettel had made the move as he had done.
"It was a bit of a strange mistake I have to say," he rambled, "I realise it was not intentional but it was a pretty strange one really.
"If he was going for the inside he had three inches to sneak down there, so God knows what he thought he was doing. That was frustrating. But that is motor racing; we've got to move on now."
He went on to say: "[Vettel] is a nice guy and he didn't need to do it, but when you keep doing these things you have to reflect on what is on your mind on this occasion.
"It looked like he was trying to go for an inside gap where, as I said, there were a few inches. What he thought he was doing there, I don't know. And he lost it. I would rather he did it with his team-mates rather than do it with us!"
Vettel took full responsibility for the accident, and he failed to recover to score any points in the rest of the Belgian race, leaving both himself and Button more than 30 points off the championship lead.
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