Force India to act on ‘very concerning’ Ocon, Perez feud

Force India owner Vijay Mallya says he will be forced to implement team orders between Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez after the pair suffered a controversial coming together in the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Force India drivers collided twice during the Spa-Francorchamps race, once on the opening lap on the run down to Eau Rouge and again at a similar position on lap 29, the latter of which left Perez with a puncture and Ocon with a damaged wing.

Prompted by Perez closing the door on Ocon at high speed, the incident led to the Frenchman slamming Perez for ‘risking his life’ by defending so hard, though Perez protested his innocence by suggesting his team-mate had no space to make the move stick.

It is the third controversial incident involving the pair after a team orders wrangle in Canada and a collision in Baku whilst disputing a potential podium finish.

On both occasions Force India bosses opted to adopt a policy of ‘racing freely’, but the latest incident means this will no longer be the case.

“I have been very happy with our overall performance during the 2017 season with both drivers scoring points for the team and racing freely,” said Mallya. “However, as much as I support competitive racing, the repeated incidents between both our cars are now becoming very concerning.

“Under these circumstances I have no choice but to implement a policy of team orders in the interest of safety and to protect the team’s position in the constructors’ championship.”

Similarly, chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer was upset to see previous lessons haven’t been learnt by the drivers and agrees it cannot be repeated.

“It wasn't the result we wanted and we left behind a lot of points after a collision between our drivers," he said. "This is what you get when you have two very competitive drivers who are fairly equal in performance in a decent car. It has happened to others in the past and it is happening to us now.

“However, we cannot afford to see this in the future, so we will ensure the team controls what happens on the track. We gave our drivers the chance to sort it out by themselves, but if they cannot do it, we will have to put some more rules in place and take the situation in our control.

“It's disappointing to lose so many points when we had the pace to finish well with both cars. Until the clash we had looked very competitive: the pace of the car is something we hold as a positive because we head to another speed track, Monza, next week.”