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Force India Set To Keep Sergio Perez And Esteban Ocon

Force India Set To Keep Sergio Perez And Esteban Ocon

The two Force India drivers have had their issues this season but they've also impressed.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

In previous years the teammates who feuded most were always Lewis Hamilton and pretty much whoever he was with. This year it's been Sahara Force India's drivers at each other's throats but they'll be there next season.

For three years Mercedes battled with themselves and Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's partnership at the German club got frostier and frostier.

It wasn't the first time that the three time World Champion had been in a feud with his teammate though after previously clashing with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

This season the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon have been the ones feuding with the latest crash at Spa leading to the team announcing they would be switching to team orders.

The Force Indias have been over performing this season and are solidly in fourth place in the constructors title, 58 points ahead of fifth and 99 points behind third.

So it's no wonder that people are interested in both their drivers however this week the chances of either man moving has been squashed.

Chief operating officer of the 'Pink Panthers', Otmar Szafnauer, told Autosport that Perez was on the verge of signing a new deal, saying:

"We're very close with Checo. [The delay is] nothing to do with him. It's no secret he has had support from some of his Mexican backers ever since he's been in the sport.

"...With Checo, we're completely in agreement. We now have to finalise what we do with his backers."

Image: PA

On young Frenchman Ocon it was team principal Bob Fernley who confirmed that they would be keeping the Mercedes F1 junior driver saying:

"We'll do everything in our power to maintain the driver line-up we have today. We're in a very fortunate position in that, like the top three teams, we've got two super-talented drivers, and we're going to need that in order to battle for fourth place in 2018, or hopefully even go higher.

"...Esteban is contracted with us effectively for three years, but two of them are absolutely secure.

"From a contractual point of view it's clear, and I don't think Esteban has got any ideas of wishing to go anywhere else at this point."

Of course the pair haven't always been at war and they managed to have won back at the Monaco Grand Prix when we played a game with them to see which of them knew the other better:

We can all look forward to another year of these two together!

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