Tension mounts between Pérez and Ocon at Force India
An eventful race for Force India, which saw its two drivers clash in a fratricidal battle. Once again, hopes of podium finishes vanished into thin air behind a confrontation that turned into a nightmare for the Indian team.
Force India is finding it increasingly difficult to manage its two drivers. Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon, fighting for a podium, collided on the streets of Baku, provoking the anger of the Mexican driver who even spoke of a lost victory as he got out of his car.
« It’s a shame to abandon in a race like this because I think we would have been able to win the race. The team did an excellent job all weekend and deserved much more than to have a race ruined under these circumstances. » Pérez spoke, his face closed and visibly annoyed.
His clash with teammate Ocon wrecked his race, even though he was able to restart after the red flag period and thanks to extensive work by his mechanics to get his car back in shape: « I couldn’t do anything to avoid the accident, and it’s particularly bad for our team because it ruined the races of each of us, on a day when other teams scored big points. We will need to discuss the situation within the team and ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again. As drivers, we are just a small part of the team, and we have the responsibility to do our best to bring home a good result, especially considering what would have been possible today. »
The Mexican thus seems to blame his teammate, who, of course, has a different version of the events: « We will address things internally and see what happened, but when you find yourself against each other during a restart, certain things can happen sometimes. Sergio was very wide in the first corner at the restart, and I went to the inside. He squeezed me between turns one and two, and I was on the inside in the second turn. He was trying to hold on outside the turn, and we touched. We need to look into this together and understand more. Of course, this shouldn’t happen again in the future. » notes Ocon, who nevertheless finished in 7th place, scoring the only points for his team this weekend.
LAP 21/51: And further down the road, after the restart, both Force Indias collide
We’re back behind the Safety Car again#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 pic.twitter.com/grtSMo60nF
— Formula 1 (@F1) 25 juin 2017
