Ferrari has criticised its rivals for the way it entertained fans in the pit lane with "circus" antics during Saturday's washout at the U.S. Grand Prix.

Heavy rain in Austin led to numerous delays to qualifying before the session was pushed back to Sunday morning. During the wait, however, several teams took to the pit lane to entertain the fans sat in the rain opposite the grandstand.

Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat engaged in a spot of ballroom dancing, Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz used Red Bull cans to play a version of ten-pin bowling, while Sauber, Force India and Williams made makeshift boats and simulated fishing to pass the time.

Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene thinks Ferrari, which did not take part in the pit-lane fun, is above such behaviour.

"We are a Formula One team, not the Cirque du Soleil," Arrivabene said. "It's fine if somebody entertains the public, that's absolutely fine. But we signed autographs for all the people that were waiting, and we took some of the children in wheelchairs into our pit box.

"We prefer to do these things, rather than simulating fishing and doing funny things for the TV. That is not really doing something for the fans."

Jerry Andre/Sutton Images

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen was equally critical, saying such behaviour might make fans think less of F1 as a serious sport.

"You want an honest answer? I think this is F1 and not the circus. The people are obviously not happy when we're not running but we cannot make them happy with whatever we do apart from running [on track] and we couldn't give it because of the weather.

"Sometimes, it's no wonder when people start thinking about what F1 is, when these kind of things happen. This was everyone's choice but, for me, we are here racing and doing our work."