Martin Whitmarsh: “I had a lot of noise in my ear…”

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says he was happy to see Sergio Perez in fighting form in Bahrain – but concedes that the Mexican overstepped the mark when he made contact with team mate Jenson Button.

Perez, who was recently encouraged by Whitmarsh to “get his elbows out,” angered Button with his aggressive approach.

“I think they were racing,” said Whitmarsh when asked by this writer about the fight with Button. “I had a lot of noise in my ear and people saying stop them fighting, but I let them fight, because that’s how we are, that’s how I am. I think he was trying to be tough, and they were both tough on each other, to be frank. We lost time because of it.

“The thing that was wrong is that you don’t hit your team mate, that was where he overstepped the mark. I’m not taking anything away from him. He was fighting today.”

Whitmarsh insisted that he was right not to impose orders.

“If you call a team order the guy behind is always going to be aggrieved. He was trying hard. It cost us a lot of time in the race, and it could have cost us a bigger calamity than that.

“That’s how we go motor racing. It was a little bit on the edge of what they should be doing to each other, but I think there is no doubt they both wanted to get the place.

“People were talking about Sergio being a bit too polite, they probably aren’t going to write those headlines this evening. He’s young, and he wanted to push. I was fine with it, but hitting a team mate is a more difficult to forgive offence, you don’t do that. But he’s young, he’s learning, and he’s fighting, and it’s fine with me.”

Regarding their post-race chat, Whitmarsh said: “I gave him my view on it. His response was, ‘Yes, you’re right, I was shitting myself at the time.’ Probably not what you want to write, but that’s what he actually said!

“Jenson’s a grown-up, and he’ll deal with it. We’ll probably get the two together and have a chat to them and let them talk amongst themselves. What happened there hurt both of them in the race to a degree, but that’s what happens if you’re going to let them race.

“You can’t suddenly change your mind on lap 38, sorry guys I didn’t mean it. You’ve got to let it happen. As I say, whatever happens the bloke behind says ‘I was quicker.’ So if you call a team order there’s not a racing driver in the world who won’t say, ‘If you hadn’t called that team order I would have had him.’

“I’d be disappointed in any racing driver who said, ‘That was fine, I didn’t mind that team order, it made it safer for us and the team.’ I’d be disturbed if a driver said that. And if I’m at the front and I’m cautiously going through the race my team mate crawling all over me like that is something I’m never going to be comfortable with.”