Daniel Ricciardo isn’t worried about replicating Esteban Ocon’s past tensions with Sergio Perez as teammates at Renault.
The young Frenchman had several incidents with the Mexican during their time together at Force India, notably in Baku and Spa in 2017 and again at the start in Singapore in 2018.
Looking ahead to this season, Ocon will also be very keen to re-establish himself after a year off the grid but Ricciardo doesn’t want to get their relationship off on the wrong foot.
“I’m definitely coming into it with a fresh approach and I don’t want to lay any rules down from day one because I think already that will create tension in itself,” he said. “’Oh so you’re anticipating something’.
“His relationship with Perez, obviously they came to blows a few times and it’s a little bit like when I joined Red Bull you know Mark [Webber] and [Sebastian] Vettel came to blows a few times so a lot of people were like, are you going to have blows from Vettel?
“But the way I saw it was: ‘Mark and Vettel have their own relationship. That’s not my relationship so I need to establish something with him. It’s a bit like Perez and Ocon and me and Ocon.
“Maybe he had his things in the past, even with Max [Verstappen, when they collided in Brazil], but I need to create something for myself with him. So I’m not going to come in with any kind of ideas or hesitations.”
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Ricciardo knows though he faces a stern challenge up against the 23-year-old and he is hoping Esteban will race in a fair way.
“I’m prepared for competition, but I’m not prepared for fun and games,” he warned.
“If down the track fun and games appear then I’ll deal with it at the time but I think I’m certainly coming in with an open mind and positivity, as opposed to, ‘oh ****, when’s he going to blow up?’ I’m not thinking like that.”
