Esteban Ocon is keen to avoid a repeat of the hostile “atmosphere” he had with Sergio Perez alongside Daniel Ricciardo at Renault.
The Frenchman makes his return to Formula 1 this season after a year on the sidelines and creates an exciting line-up alongside the veteran Australian at the French manufacturer.
Known as a feisty racer, Ocon was involved in an increasingly bitter relationship with Perez during his first stint on the grid, with the pair coming to blows several times in 2017 and Esteban admits it got out of hand.
“What happened at Force India is not something I want to redo again,” he told Formula1.com.
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“It was not a nice atmosphere. We had respect – me and Checo – and it didn’t slow down the team or anything but the atmosphere between us was not so good.
“On track, we came close too many times, that was clear, and that was not good.”
That history has already been addressed by Ricciardo, who isn’t judging Ocon on those moments but did also declare he wouldn’t accept any “fun and games” from the 23-year-old.
“It’s not something I want to do again. The atmosphere is definitely a lot better between me and Daniel than it was with Checo,” Ocon continued.
“So if we can keep working like that, even though it’s going to be different on track, it’s going to be a lot better for everyone to have a positive energy and a great working environment.
“Hopefully we’re going to be solid on that topic and be able to push the team forward, but no, we don’t want to have that happening. Of course, it can always happen at the start or something, but in a race, like it happened, it was not acceptable.”