Force India confirm it will use team orders going forward
- Published on 18 Sep 2018 10:02
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- By: Fergal Walsh
Force India has confirmed that its drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon will not be allowed to race each other during the coming races. The pair collided on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, which resulted in Ocon ending his race early in the wall.
The Silverstone squad enforced team orders last year after a series of on-track incidents between the two drivers. The rules were relaxed towards the end of the year, but now team principal Otmar Szafnaer has stated the team will bring back the orders.
“It’s unacceptable for teammates to hit each other and it has cost us dearly,” he said. “They didn’t leave each other enough room and the contact put Esteban into the wall. We will reinstate the rules of engagement we operated last year after similar incidents, which means they cannot race each other."
Force India was taken under new management during the summer break and scored double points finishes at Spa and Monza. However, it walked away from Singapore without adding to its tally, which Szafnauer says is frustrating following the positive pace it displayed during qualifying.
“This disastrous race is all the more frustrating when you consider the speed we showed in qualifying and the opportunity that has passed us by,” he said. “These painful lows are part of racing and it’s fair to say that there are very few positives to take from tonight apart from the car pace. We will have some discussions behind closed doors and will learn from what happened so that we can become stronger as a team.”
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Replies (11)
Login to replytalktohenry
Posts: 362
Absolutely ridiculous the amount of points they lost, I am a fan of Sergio and his amazing talent, but he deserves to be sacked for what happened in Singapore, bearing in mind it's not the first time.
F1todayfan101
Posts: 120
"Sergio, Esteban is faster than you"
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
Hello! Hello! Hello!
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
I'll be the first to admit that Perez has made stupid moves in the past on Esteban. However, I thought this was marginal at best. I've said it before, if it wasn't Sergio it would have been someone else punting Esteban. He was driving into a dissapearing wedge on the dirty side of the track. What's truly egregious is that he had a second incident with Sirotkin, which was much more serious. I'm still not convinced that it wasn't intentional. Still, however, one bad race doesn't change dozens of solid performances by Sergio and he's still highly rated.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
Agree with you AJ
The move was clumsy by Ocon putting himself into extremely dangerous situation. I watched the onboard a couple of times and you can see that the car in front of Perez also made the same move just previous of the move that Perez made. I have to wonder if this was due to have colder tyres etc.
However in my opinion the move on Sirotkin was todo with frustration more deliberate since he would have known that he was there. All in all it more and less proves that he's in the correct team with regards to ability. Ocon might have higher ability and therefore be more suited towards an top team.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
@Boudy Ocon definitely deserves to be in F1. But I don't rate him higher than Perez. However, Ocon has a lot of years to improve and to peak. Still, if I had to pick one today it would be Perez hands down. I've found Ocon's wheel-to-wheel racing abilities to be subpar. He's been too cautious in the past, and recently while trying to be more aggressive he's not been able to pull it off for a variety of reasons. It's really a shame Ocon will not be paired again with Perez, they have been one of the most exciting pairings in F1.
websurfer
Posts: 52
This was another stupid and dirty move by Perez. It's obvious that he deliberately was giving Ocon a push and later on he showed huge aggressiveness by doing the same but harder move on Sirotkin. That,s really dirty driving. I fully understand, if the drivers have a good fight. And they don't have to give away their possition, just because they are being pressed very hard. But when Perez obviously on purpose is driving into other drivers, then I begin to dislike him.
Alonzo
Posts: 66
Frustration & Misjudgement, I'm not buying that it was intentional, he let frustration get the best of him, he misjudged his move, he prolly thought he was finally closing the door on Sirotkin... Not Ocon's fault but, he was being really optimistic... My 2 Cents.
Alonzo
Posts: 66
*BUT he was being really optimistic...
2GRX7
Posts: 108
Uh, yeah, Sergio P is now on my sh!+ list! There was more than enough room for Ocon exiting that turn, no one hit Perez from the back, as he had claimed, and his peripheral vision could have easily spotted Ocon's left-front tire creeping up next to his right-front! Don't be fooled by his B.S.
Three cameras expose what Perez did, including his airbox camera, which doesn't show any yawing in the chassis, which would have necessitated a quick flick of his wrist to stabilize the car. SMH!!
Even if you look at his track-out point, he was covering/defending the HAAS's tighter corner-exit, which was closer to the apex.
I'm even going to get into the Sirotkin deal!
2GRX7
Posts: 108
That's "NOT" going to get into the Sirotkin incident!