"With Perez it went too far but with Max it was a different story."
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Also for the comeback kid of 2020 it's wait and see when the F1 season will start. Esteban Ocon is looking forward to his return to Formula 1 with Renault F1 Team. Looking back on his previous years in F1 and his rivalries, the Frenchman highlights a big difference between the battles with Sergio Perez and with Max Verstappen.
At Force India the driver drove next to the old rock Sergio Perez. The two of them had a lot of trouble with each other and neither of them gave in an inch. In 2018 this didn't went well at Spa and in Singapore as well. In conversation with La Gazetta dello Sport Ocon looks back:
"Between me and Perez the rivalry went too far. We wasted valuable points for Force India because of our feud. A shame, because it was totally unnecessary." The other guy on the track he had a fight with is a different matter.
Verstappen and Ocon
"With Max, it's a whole different story", The Renault driver continues. "I don't want to go into the incident in Brazil again, we got over it. Last year during the hot laps we duelled on the track without making a point of racing against each other".
During the race in Brazil 2018, Verstappen and Ocon collided in the Senna S-curves. The Dutchman was one lap ahead, so he thought the Frenchman had taken his victory of that day. It ended in a small skirmish in the paddock.
Ocon is self-assured and says he has the most talent of the new generation of drivers. When asked, the driver replies wholeheartedly: "Me! I have raced against Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, George Russell and of course Verstappen in the past. We all made it to F1. The newer generation is very competitive."