Sebastian Vettel will learn from his mistakes and emerge as a stronger sportsman and championship contender, Red Bull boss Christian Horner insisted on Monday.
The 23-year-old German, once Formula One's rising star and widely seen as the natural heir to compatriot Michael Schumacher, was dubbed 'crash kid' for his continuing blunders and accidents after another afternoon when he was given a drive-through penalty and made five visits to the pit lane.
In the wake of Sunday's incident-filled Belgian Grand Prix Vettel trails world championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 31 points after his erratic and pointless drive at Spa.
Vettel's teammate, Mark Webber, is second, three points behind Hamilton, with defending champion Jenson Button four points back in fourth who was shunted out of Sunday's race by Vettel.
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said Vettel was developing as a 'crash kid' when he was asked to react to the incident which took Button out of contention to finish second and possibly wrecked his hopes of retaining his title.
Horner said: "Sebastian, without a shadow of a doubt, is a very, very talented driver. 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.
"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."
Whitmarsh said: "It was not what you would expect to see in F1 - more reminiscent of junior formulae. A drive-through seemed a pretty light punishment to me."
He added: "He (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!"
After a series of incidents, Vettel has developed a reputation as an impetuous and unpredictable racer, but Horner believes he will shake off that image.
"Nobody knows that better than Sebastian, he is a pretty mature individual," he said.
"He analyses his own performance very, very carefully and I am sure he will bounce back from this."
Vettel's wild driving has given Webber a clear 28 points advantage on him in the title race, but Horner believes it is too early to back just one man in the run-in.
"Things can change so quickly," said Horner.
"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."