Force India to tell drivers that Baku events were "unacceptable"

Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon are set to be told that the events of Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix were "unacceptable" according to Force India’s Chief Operating Officer, Otmar Szafnauer.

Szafnauer has been quoted by L’Equipe magazine as saying that both Perez and Ocon are both to blame for the incident which saw Force India miss out on what could have been its first victory in Formula 1.

"I would say it's 50-50, or 55-45. The worst thing you can do is hit your teammate," he said. "It was tricky because on a circuit with walls, Sergio would otherwise have had room and everything would have been fine. So we're going to go over the incident with them and tell them it's unacceptable. They cannot fight each other. It's bad enough when you hit another driver, but if it's your teammate, you risk ruining the team's whole race. But they're aware of that - they're intelligent guys."

During the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, both Perez and Ocon collided early in the race after an attempted overtake from Ocon on lap 20 saw the pair collide, ruining their race and triggering a third safety car period and contributing to a red flag. Had the incident not occurred, Force India could have secured its first victory in Formula 1, with the pair running in third and fourth behind Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel before the leaders ran into their eventual issues.

This collision marks the latest incident between the pair after the team orders of the Canadian Grand Prix sparked the conflict, which arguably cost Force India its first podium of 2017.

Chris Soulsby