Ocon warned Ricciardo fight in Austria lacked the ‘maturity big teams look for’

Esteban Ocon has been warned his unwillingness to help Daniel Ricciardo in Austria lacked the “maturity” big teams look for.

Starting on alternate tyre strategies, the Australian quickly made his way through the field from ninth on the grid using the medium tyre.

But rather than letting his faster teammate through, Ocon, in flashbacks to his time alongside Sergio Perez at Force India, chose to fight Ricciardo for several laps before he eventually made his way past.

“Renault faced the situation where the McLaren-bound Ricciardo really should have been eased by his teammate Ocon,” Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle wrote in his post-race column.

“Esteban is an impressive fighter, but as with his days at Force India, he must realise that working as a team is not a weakness, and certainly a maturity the big teams look for.

“They were holding each other up in what will likely be a season-long scrap with McLaren and Racing Point.”

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Early on after catching the Frenchman, Ricciardo did request some team assistance in getting by Ocon but there was no definitive response.

“I asked a bit of a general question,” he said.

“As I was, I felt, being held up by that group. So I just said, ‘Look, guys, I’m quite a bit quicker at the moment.’ So I guess that’s, it’s really me asking the question. ‘Okay, are we going to swap?’

“Obviously, we were on different strategies. I was on the medium and Esteban was on the soft, so I think typically early in the race I don’t think it’s that wise to fight and lose time, especially on a split strategy.

“So I asked the question, and then I got past, but I believe the call was coming. If it wasn’t that lap, it was going to come. So it was being discussed on pit wall.”

With this the first altercation with Ocon as teammates, Ricciardo admitted he wasn’t planning any “divebombs” to get past.

Meanwhile, the returnee to the grid for 2020, saw it all as a fair fight.

“It’s been good to race with Daniel,” Esteban said.

“I have to say, it was a very fair fight. We left each other space. It was not too aggressive and that’s the way I want to race against I guess my teammate, really.

“From the start to the moment we were together, and we were together after he got in front. So I was gonna have a move again at the next rate before I retired.

“So yeah, it was a good fight. I was happy with how everything has been there.

“So, looking forward to many more. I think the policy of the team so far was to let each other race but race cleanly and that’s what we did.”