One of the major talking points from Formula One's United States Grand Prix came from Fernando Alonso. The Aston Martin driver's chaotic season continued with a lap-one skirmish, which led to him labelling a fellow driver as 'low-quality.'

The Spaniard collided early on, and eventually finished behind his teammate Lance Stroll in 15th. Talking after the race, he certainly didn't mince his words when talking about the drivers outside the points.

Alonso was battling with Williams' Alex Albon in the opening stage of the race. The two hit each other, with the two-time world champion, one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, left with damage to his car.

The stewards didn't see any wrongdoing from Albon, as his move escaped any of F1's range of penalties. In his post-race interview, Alonso touched on how the car was actually quite competitive, and they would have made more of the race if it wasn't for the contact.

What Fernando Alonso Said After US Grand Prix

He said: "I think we lost half a second or more. The car is destroyed. I saw it in parc fermé. Half of the floor is not there.

"I don’t know how we kept on going and how we were semi-competitive. I imagine if the car was in one piece, probably today the points were a possibility. A strong possibility because we were running P12 with half a car."

There was a chance that they could have cut the margin to rivals Williams in the championship, but ultimately, the collision prevented any of that from happening.

Alonso was frustrated by the whole situation, and characteristically, he didn't hold back with his criticism of some of the drivers at the back end of the grid.

"I think when you start at the back, there is always this risk. I think the quality of the drivers in the lower third of the grid is very low, as we saw today with Alex. I think we need to improve the car and start a little bit higher up."

In stark contrast, Albon wasn't as frustrated and dismissive of his opponent's ability, as he said post-race: "It’s always fun to race Fernando, he’s strong but he’s always fair. Maybe he thought I was a bit over the edge, I don’t know. I’m sure I’ll find out soon. But I had a good amount of fun, I think."

Albon went on to finish 17th, despite having a broken wing for the rest of the race.

Lando Norris Has Also Questioned Quality Levels This Season

It's always good to see these battles, though, it is interesting that this situation sort of mirrors what we saw with Lando Norris and Franco Colapinto.

The Briton was critical of the Alpine driver after the crash in Baku, and the comments were enough for him to come out in the days after and offer an apology.

He said: "At the end of the day, I just got taken out... just some drivers that shouldn’t be in F1, to be honest."

It is, of course, the heat of the moment and the adrenaline is at an all-time high, but maybe there is a growing frustration with situations like this. Alonso came out with a fairly similar sentiment, and perhaps there is a discourse behind the scenes that the standard towards the back of the grid isn't good enough, and is ultimately becoming a hindrance to others.