Formula 1 | Force India safe: "Perez and Ocon will be able to race freely in 2018"

In an interview with motorsport.com, Otmaz Szafnauer spoke about the climate within Force India, underlining how the situation has significantly improved between Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez. The "ruins" of the last championship have helped the drivers to mature, putting themselves in a markedly different position for 2018. Force India's objective will be to remove the team orders introduced after the Spa events, leaving maximum freedom to its standard bearers already since the Australian GP.

Here are the words of Otmaz Szafnauer: “The riders understood the situation and consequently matured. Now they know how to behave and next season there shouldn't be any problems. Some media criticized our attitude, stating that team orders could have been released earlier, but as a team we chose not to influence the performance of our drivers."

“However, we reach a point where it is mandatory to intervene, above all to safeguard all the work. In Baku we lost something like 33 points and such a situation was no longer tolerable. Now there is the right balance among our drivers and we are certain that in 2018 they will fight cleanly, without damaging themselves and the team" he added.

Roberto Valenti