26/06/2017
NEWS STORY
Though Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll dominated the post-race headlines - for different reasons - the second successive bust-up between the Pink Panthers almost slipped under the radar.
Two weeks after hostility broke out at Force India when Esteban Ocon was left frustrated when the team's requests that Sergio Perez allow him through to challenge Daniel Ricciardo fell on deaf ears, the intra-team rivalry took another turn for the worse when the pair collided at the second re-start in Baku.
The two collided at the infamous Turn 2 as they battled for a place on the podium. Though both incurred damage, necessitating pit stops, Perez was eventually to retire despite the best efforts of his crew who carried out further repairs when the race was red-flagged.
Despite team co-owner Vijay Mallya's warning that action would be taken in the wake of the Montreal debacle which eventually saw Sebastian Vettel pass both his drivers, the team opted to let things be and allow its drivers to race. Sadly, yesterday afternoon proved that, admirable as it is, sometimes one needs to take a firmer approach.
"The worst thing you can do is hit your teammate," said COO Otmar Szafnauer, "because it gives other teams opportunities that they really shouldn't have had.
"It is pretty tricky too," he continued, "because it is a street circuit, and anywhere else Checo would have been able to move over a bit and they would have been fine. But there is a wall there.
"We will review it in a professional manner," he confirmed, "we'll talk to the drivers and say this is unacceptable... we cannot be running into each other.
"It's bad enough if you run into a competitor because that can damage your race, but not your teammate because that can take you both out. They understand that. They are intelligent guys."
Though keen not to apportion blame to an individual driver, he admitted: "I was looking at it... 50/50, 55/45, I have to review it some more.
"Checo didn't get the start he should have,” he admitted, "Esteban got a better restart and then didn't give him enough room."