Force India sticks to "no team orders" for Baku

In Montreal, the Mexican was asked if he wanted to move over for Ocon as they battled with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo for third place, but the team drew short of imposing a firm order on him.

While the outfit suggested it may have to rethink its approach, having missed out on the podium chance and subsequently seen both its drivers overtaken by Sebastian Vettel, it has decided that it is happy to continue letting both its men race.

When asked by Motorsport.com about what discussions the team had had since Canada, Perez said: “We had a couple of discussions, one after the race, one during the week.

“The policy of the team is that if we are in the same situation they will do exactly the same thing – so they will let us race again. No team orders.

“They felt there was no need to do team orders. Thirteen laps of difference on tyres in Montreal is not a lot, as it is a very low degradation on that circuit.

“The team has all the information, so what they say is that if we are in the same situation again on a similar circuit they will do the same, and they feel they did the right thing.”

Perez said that after reflecting on Canada, the team came to the conclusion that its approach had been the right one – which is why it would do the same thing again if circumstances repeated themselves.

“They basically say that they will let us race as they did in Canada,” added Perez. “In Canada they told me to speed up to Ricciardo, and we were just having a normal conversation, and there were never team orders.

“I think it is great for the sport, great for everyone, great for the fans, that the team let the drivers race.”

Ocon relationship

While Ocon complained on the radio about Perez’s defensive driving in the closing stages of the Canadian GP, the pair have also cleared up matters privately since the race.

“We did have a word and actually in the week we had a phone call and everything is quite alright between us,” said Perez.

“We basically discussed that after the race, we have adrenaline, 2000% on us, so we probably say things that once everything was done, we can say we shouldn’t have said that. So we just had a friendly chat and everything is alright.

“The atmosphere in the team is great. We are just looking forward to closing the gap to Red Bull. I think we are in a great position, really close to the Red Bull ahead, and it is great to have that challenge.”

After fighting with Ricciardo for the podium in Canada, Perez believes that Force India has the chance of battling the Red Bulls for a top three spot again this weekend.

Having finished third in Baku last year, he sees potential for another strong performance around the Azerbaijan streets.

“Probably in terms of pace it was our best weekend,” he said. “We had really strong pace the whole weekend and probably was the one [podium] we did on pace.

"Hopefully this year we can have the pace and aim for the podium. If there is one race where we can be closer, it is this one – so it is a good chance for us.”