You risked our lives, Ocon tells Perez
spa-francorchamps — Esteban Ocon accused his Force India teammate Sergio Perez of endangering both of their lives in a furious outburst after the pair collided twice during Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
The Frenchman, in his rookie season with the team, made contact with the Mexican on the downhill run to Eau Rouge both times.
In the first, Ocon hit Perez and the pit wall nearby, but escaped unhurt. In the second, he suffered front wing damage and Perez had a puncture.
“It is just too much,” he said. “Risking our lives for nothing!
“He risked my life in there, at 300kph down to Eau Rouge... That’s the first thing, the second thing is we lost a lot of points.
“He’s supposed to be a professional driver, but today he didn’t show it. He has not done that with any other team-mates, I don’t know why he’s doing it with me.
“I’m going to go and speak to him man to man and tell him the truth.
“He’s going to have a child. I don’t know if he wants to die or something. It’s just ridiculous.” Perez conceded that he was entirely at fault for their first collision, but suggested that the second was not his responsibility.
“The first one was totally my fault, I didn’t see him,” he said.
“I apologise for that one. The second one, he was too optimistic and there was no need to touch there.
“I knew he was there, but I also knew there was no more space to go, so I just protected my line.
“I thought he was obviously going to make the manoeuvre after Eau Rouge. “I didn’t do anything different that I wouldn’t have done to any other drivers. No other driver would have done differently.”
Their latest clash follows a series of acrimonious differences between the drivers including a team orders row in Canada and another costly collision at the Aberzaijan event. —