Perez hopes Ocon "intelligent enough" to change attitude

The Mexican was battling his teammate for a potential podium spot in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when they came to blows after a safety car restart – with the Turn 2 incident damaging both cars and forcing them into the pits for repairs.

Perez is adamant that the clash was avoidable, but sees no need for his team bosses to step in and dictate new rules of engagements.

Instead, he thinks the only thing that needs to be changed is Ocon's mindset of how he goes racing.

"I think more than a rule book is just making sure that with Esteban we are free to race, but what racing means," said Perez ahead of the Austrian GP.

"If they tell you you are free to race, but you just push your teammate in the wall, then that is not the right way forward.

"I expect him to be intelligent enough to understand what he did wrong and change a bit his attitude for the benefit of the team."

He added: "Simply, Esteban has to understand what racing means. Racing means just racing another car, not crashing into the other car. I think pretty much all the teammates on the grid are free to race and obviously with respect to the other car and to the other rivals.

"In four years with Nico [Hulkenberg] we never had an issue and were free to race. We had big battles on track but we were always free to race. I think as along as Esteban understands what racing means then that should be clear."

Avoidable crash

Perez says that the Baku incident was especially frustrating because he conceded Ocon had already got past him, so there was no need for the Frenchman to squeeze him out.

"The move was already done," he said. "I don't think we can blame the kerb because we were already in a straight line and we touched in a straight line. He was already ahead of me and he just didn't leave enough room. He already did the move.

"There was no need for the contact. I don't think you have to be a genius to understand what happened."

Perez has not spoken to Ocon since the incident, but made it clear how unhappy the team was at the missed opportunity of Baku, especially after the controversy between the pair in Canada when Ocon was unhappy at losing the chance of a podium shot.

"I think what happened in Baku was totally unacceptable from the team point of view," he explained.

"In all my experience I have had with teammates, the competition has been really intense between teammates but never to that extent, never to just unnecessarily crashing into each other.

"I gave enough room for him to do the manoeuvre. He was already ahead, so there was no need to ruin our races. And, at the end of the day, it is the team who paid the price."