"Simply, Esteban has to understand what racing means," says Perez of team-mate after "unacceptable" Baku collision
Wednesday 12 July 2017 17:25, UK
Sergio Perez says Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon needs to learn about "racing" after the pair clashed to costly effect in the manic Azerbaijan GP.
Force India have insisted their drivers are free to continue racing without team orders in this weekend's Austrian GP, but Perez believes Ocon, who is competing in his first full season of F1, needs to understand what that exactly entails.
"What happened in Baku was totally unacceptable from a team point of view, that's the feedback I got from the team," Perez told reporters.
"In all my experience I've had with my team-mates the competition was always really intense but never to that extent and never to unnecessarily crashing into each other. I gave him enough room to do the manoeuvre, he was already ahead, and there was no need at all to ruin our races.
"At the end of the day, it's the team that pays the price."
Asked if the team should impose orders if he and Ocon are running line astern again, Perez insisted: "That's not needed. Simply, Esteban has to understand what racing means.
"Racing means just racing another car, not crashing into another car. Pretty much all the team-mates on the grid are free to race and with respect to the other car. In four years with Nico [Hulkenberg] we never had an issue.
"We were free to race, we had big battles on track, but we were always free to race. As long as Esteban understands what racing means that should be clear."
Ocon got his right of reply later on Thursday.
Speaking to the written media, the Frenchman claimed that, contrary to Perez's suggestion that it was the rookie who had been at fault, Force India put the blame at "50-50" between the two of them.
Ocon also pointed to his career record as evidence of his driving ability.
"I don't want to respond to those comments," he said. "I've been finishing more than 40 races in single-seaters in a row. I'm European champion and GP3 world champion, so I don't think I'm lacking experience either on racing or wheel-to-wheel fights."
Although Perez said they had not spoken since the last race, Ocon said they chatted at a sponsor event.
"We had an event in BWC [Force Indias sponsor] we spoke normally and there is no more tension than there was before. It's not going to change the work we have in the team because it's important we stay professional inside as we have a strong job to do."
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