Haas driver Romain Grosjean has slammed Sauber's Macus Ericsson after the pair made contact at the start of the Chinese Grand Prix, bringing an end to the Frenchman's fairytale start to the season.
Grosjean, who had started 14th on his 30th birthday, had to pit for a new front-wing as a result of the clash and said he never felt comfortable with the car after that.
"It was the worst possible birthday," he told Canal+. "That idiotic Ericsson hit me in Turn 1 and broke my front-wing.
"He saw nothing, he understood nothing, I just think he should open his eyes."
Grosjean went on to finish a lowly 19th and couldn't explain why his car handled so badly throughout the race after praising it in both Australia and Bahrain where he went on to finish sixth and fifth respectively.
"It was a horrific race," he added. "The start was terrible. From there we had the safety car and I thought, ‘OK, we still have a chance to do something.’ But the balance in the car was nowhere near good. I don’t know what happened.
"Somehow, it’s positive that we had such a difficult race, because we can analyse what we did wrong, what we did right and what we could have done differently.
"From there, we can come back stronger. It’s a difficult one after the two first races. Not the birthday I was hoping for.”
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