Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner says that Sebastian Vettel will "learn a lot" from his crash at the Belgian Grand Prix, insisting that the German is still in the 2010 championship fight despite his disastrous Spa weekend.
Vettel dropped to some 31 points off the championship lead after finishing the Belgian race a lap down in 15th place. He lost control of his car while dicing with Jenson Button for position into the Bus Stop chicane on lap 16, spun and speared into the McLaren.
After serving a drive-through penalty for causing the crash with Button, Vettel then picked up a puncture when he tagged Tonio Liuzzi's front wing while overtaking the Force India, dropping him completely out of contention for points.
But although Vettel was criticised by many for his driving in the race, with McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh suggesting that he had driven like he belonged in "junior formulae", Horner insisted that the error was just one of those things.
"I think Sebastian, without a shadow of a doubt, is a very, very talented driver," Horner gushed unnecessarily to the press after the Belgian race.
"Here was one of those races where it just did not go his way. He needs to stay calm and focused – and eventually it will come his way."
He added: "It was difficult for him. You have to make split second decisions and I think he made one mistake when he was racing Jenson.
"Jenson, braking where he did, just took him completely by surprise. In trying to avoid him he got himself into a spin that ultimately collected Jenson in very, very difficult conditions.
"He is a great racing driver, he is still a very young guy and it is easy to be very critical on somebody who is relatively inexperienced – but for sure he will learn a lot from what happened."
He added that Vettel, who has endured a run of relatively poor form in recent races, can still "bounce back", and insisted that the German was still in the 2010 title race.
"Nobody knows that better than Sebastian, he is a pretty mature individual," he bellowed, "He analyses his own performance very, very carefully and I am sure he will bounce back from this. It would be foolish to write him off at the moment."
And despite Mark Webber hinting after the Belgian race that it was nearly time for the Red Bull squad to think about employing a pecking order on the team to try and win the title, Horner insisted that Vettel would still be given equal footing in the team with the Australian driver.
"Things can change so quickly," Horner shrugged when asked about the championship, "Mark has won more races than any other driver at the moment, he has produced some great drives and he is definitely in the form of his career.
"Based on the season to date you would have to say that he looks in great shape, but as we saw here things can change so quickly, it would be a foolish person to rule Sebastian out at the moment."
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