Ocon: The podium was up for grabs;
The Sahara Force India drivers livened things up in Montreal. While the team can be pleased with the 18 points scored, Esteban Ocon feels that he could have threatened Daniel Ricciardo and set his sights on the podium.
At the time of the assessment, the entire question was whether the glass was half full or half empty. Indeed, Sahara Force India has strongly consolidated its fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, scoring another 18 points while Toro Rosso was unable to score any. The gap has now reached 42 points, which means the Silverstone team is now closer to third place (41 points) than to fifth.
But there is a certain sense of incompleteness since the drivers could have aimed even higher than their 5th and 6th places. Thus, Esteban Ocon even believes he could have aimed for the podium: « As a team, we scored some really important points today, but I’m a bit frustrated with the result because I feel the podium may have been possible. »
The Frenchman could be all the more frustrated as he believes he was hindered in his progress by his own teammate, who refused to let him pass to attack Daniel Ricciardo even though he was the one with the freshest tires. Despite numerous radio exchanges on the subject, the team failed to convince the Mexican to allow his teammate to take a chance, to his own advantage.
Robert Fernley, the team director, could only observe the “damage” at the end of the race: « We clearly had the fastest car compared to Ricciardo’s Red Bull, but it has never been easy to overtake in Montreal, and we spent almost the entire race in his exhaust. After the pit stops, Esteban was right behind Sergio and clearly had the advantage thanks to his fresh tires. We informed both drivers of the situation and considered swapping them, but in the end, we chose to let them race. »
Sergio Perez therefore felt that he was within his rights and that it was up to him to take his chance on the Australian driver, who was on soft tires and not super-softs like the Sahara Force India drivers: « I could see he was struggling in some places. When we started to close in on the lapped cars, I thought I deserved a chance to overtake him. I did my best and pushed really hard but it was just impossible to make that maneuver. »
Now we must see how the relationship between the two drivers, who seem to be getting closer, will evolve. While this could push the team to new heights, this intense competition could harm the development pace if tensions rise on both sides of the garage.
