Force India driver Esteban Ocon has reassured everyone that there were no hard feelings with his teammate Sergio Perez after the recent Canadian Grand Prix.
Perez was in fourth position right behind the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo while Esteban was in fifth, and on fresher tyres. The young rookie was trying desperately to get past the Mexican and hunt down Ricciardo for the final podium position, however Perez wasn't having a bar of it.
In the end they were both caught by the charging Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and dropped even further down the order.
Here Esteban talks us through those final laps from his point of view, his teammate, and the new objectives Force India has put in place as a result…
Esteban, Force India were attracting a lot of headlines after the Canadian Grand Prix, specifically about team orders. Can you just talk us through the closing laps from your point of view.
Yeah. At that moment I had a different strategy than Sergio. I did push on the first stint a bit later, so I changed my tyres later than Sergio and I was a bit quicker. But the team took the decision to let us race, both, which is respectable, and great also to see that they trust us and let us race. So no, we had a good discussion after the race in the debrief. And I also called Sergio during the week when everyone was relaxed, and discussed our points. We're all good now. All set for a new weekend and there is no tension between us.
So Sergio is still on your Christmas card list?
Yes! No problem.
Vijay Mallya said after the race in Montreal that there would be some new rules of engagement starting in Baku. So, having had those discussions in the debrief, can you tell us what those rules of engagement are?
You know what the headline… what Force India always does it let both drivers race. Of course, if there is a big difference of speed between the cars then they will for sure try to do something to always benefit the team at the end. But they didn't really want to do that in Montreal, which I think is very respectable, as I said. Now we will see if we get other opportunities here to do a great result.
So if there is a role-reversal this weekend and you're ahead and are asked to let Pérez through, would you do that?
I always respect team orders if there are.
You said you rang Sergio to discuss things. Can I just ask why you felt the need to do that if you'd already had a debrief beforehand?
Well, first of all we had a plane to catch just after so we were in a bit of rush to debrief. It's always good to do it a little bit after, to talk when you know everyone's relaxed and the weekend's finished. To have a further talk was quite important I think. And we just discussed our points, discussed freely, just us both, together. I think it was important to do that. As I said, now everything is settled-down and we are ready to attack that race.
Just before the Monaco Grand Prix you were speaking, you said you were confident you could get a podium fairly soon. Given the last race, how encouraged are you that this is just around the corner, the podium for you?
Yeah, this is my target to be scoring a podium before the end of the season, that's the goal I've set myself and that's what I want to achieve and I'm pretty pleased with my progression since Melbourne. I've been feeling more and more comfortable with the car and just improving step by step and now I'm starting to feel really well and I think if we have a great car here why not, we can achieve it. I will definitely push for that so we will have to see where we are after practice but if it's not here, I will keep pushing 100 percent to get it later.
