» Whitmarsh: McLaren would look to sign Vettel

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that he would still be interested in signing Sebastian Vettel to the team, despite labelling the young German as a “crash kid” after he punted Jenson Button out of the Belgian Grand Prix last fortnight.

Speaking with Sport Bild at the time, Whitmarsh went on the record as saying: “Under pressure this year, Sebastian is making just too many mistakes.

“Also his collision with Mark Webber in Turkey, for me, was 95 per cent his fault,” he added.

However, Whitmarsh has seemingly reconsidered his opinions, and admitted that McLaren had tried to sign the young German – only for the Red Bull powerbrokers to veto the deal – at the end of 2007 as a replacement for Fernando Alonso.

“I am open and honest enough to admit it,” Whitmarsh said. “Sebastian is one of the great and promising talents, and we at McLaren wanted to have him. We were not able to sign him at that time.”

With Vettel tightly bound to Red Bull until the end of the 2012 season, Whitmarsh adderd that he would have another crack at signing the race-winner again.

“If he continues to develop so fantastically, then at the end of his contract I will try once again to get him,” Whitmarsh said.

[Original image via The Cahier Archive]