Esteban Ocon explains why he collided with Sergio Perez so often at Force India

Esteban Ocon has admitted to making “mistakes” when he raced Force India Formula 1 team-mate Sergio Perez, with their rivalry generating several collisions.

Going into his first full season in Formula 1 after a nine-race stint at Manor, 20-year-old Ocon had a lot to prove in 2017. The Mercedes protege teamed up with Perez, who was a six-time podium finisher ahead of his seventh F1 campaign.

“Yeah, it was a lot of pressure,” Ocon admitted in F1’s latest Off The Grid video. “I was racing against someone very experienced, you know, Checo. He was a consistent scorer in the midfield – probably the most consistent.”

There was potential for decent results at Force India’s VJM10 was the fourth-quickest car overall, but several incidents cost the team a sizeable amount of points. Ocon squeezed Perez into the wall at Baku, where both cars were running in the top five; the Mexican likewise crammed the sister car towards the inside wall on the run down from La Source to Eau Rouge, on two separate occasions, at Spa-Francorchamps.

This prompted strong words from an upset Ocon, who told media after the race: “I don't know if he wants to die or something. Today, we lost a lot of points. We took a lot of risk. We risk our lives for nothing and no reason.”

Esteban Ocon, Sahara Force India VJM10, Sergio Perez, Sahara Force India VJM10

Drama occurred again in 2018, as a collision between both Force Indias sent Ocon into the wall at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix, with Perez blamed by the team.

With hindsight, the Frenchman views these multiple incidents in the context of his impetuosity.

“I started clearly on the back foot in the first race [of 2017],” he explained. “But then I managed to catch up well after that. And then we were racing very closely. And there were moments where I did mistakes, there were moments where I don't feel it was necessarily my fault.

“I was very young. I was inexperienced. I wanted to push hard and show people what I was capable of.

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“At the time, we were just racing hard and trying to race as the best we can. And that's also why we got so many points that year. Because we were racing very well together.

“There are things that I would have liked to change. Like Spa, for example. These kinds of moments, it shouldn’t have happened. It cost the team points.

“You know, I've made mistakes over my career, and things that I shouldn't have done in racing. But that's how you learn from it. We all make mistakes, but it's how you overcome those.

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

“That's the way I saw racing back then. The track was what matters the most. Still, I believe that the track is what matters the most, but things could have happened in a different way. And with how much respect I had for Checo at the time – and I still have now – I would have preferred things to go in a different way.”

Things went so awry that Force India briefly enforced team orders, despite its comfortable position in the constructors’ championship – after the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix, it lay fourth with 103 points, behind Red Bull (199) and ahead of Williams (45). The outfit maintained this position in the standings from round three to the final race of the year.

“We finished with a very good championship finish position for the team,” Ocon added. “With fourth place. A top 10 finish in my first full season. So, yeah, it was very solid for sure.”

Force India couldn’t afford costly crashes in light of its tricky financial situation which led to a Lawrence Stroll-consortium acquiring the team in mid-2018; it now races as Aston Martin.

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