Force India drivers hope to regain team's trust as they agree to follow orders

A week later after their coming together and subsequent verbal war in the Belgian Grand Prix, the two Force India drivers were in an 'agreement' mood in the Italian Grand Prix's press conference.

The duo concurred each other that they had 'crossed the line' in Belgium and let their team down in the last few races. But after a meeting earlier in the day, they have decided to move on from the incidents and work together as a team.

"We have been racing very closely lately," said Sergio Perez. "We have had couple of incidents in the last few races, [and so] I had a really good conversation with him [Esteban Ocon] - personally between him and me and I think it’s time to move forward.

"Everyone has his opinions of what happened, the engineers have one opinion, the fans, us have different opinions on what has been happening, but you know the most important is that from now on we move forward.

"The main objective for the team is to finish fourth in the constructors’ championship and we cannot afford to lose anymore points. I think we have lost quite a lot points in those races, so we will move forward and I am very sure that these things will not happen again."

Ocon agreed, adding: "We have been racing really closely as Sergio said, we are always fighting for the last tenths in qualifying or in the races so far.

"For sure, it’s really close between us but what has happened before, has happened, now we can’t change what happened before, we have to move forward.

"As Sergio was saying, we had the talk this morning together, just us two and it is time that we forget all that and we work hard for the team and that’s what is important.

"That's what the team deserve as well, that we behave as professionals and we want to keep challenging the others, keep pushing them and we have to keep that fourth place until the end."

However, the team management, including team boss Vijay Mallya have clearly indicated that team order would be imposed, should the drivers be anywhere close to each other on track.

When asked if they will adhere to the instructions, the two readily said yes, adding that they will do whatever is asked of them, so as to avoid any undue incident - losing crucial points.

"I think we are both matured enough, Esteban has been racing for a long time as well and I think we both know how to handle things," said Perez.

"Although there will be some instructions coming up for us, I think we will put everything in place to make sure that the interest of the team comes first, before us."

Ocon added: "It doesn’t matter if I am a rookie or if I have experience or not, at the end what matters is the result for the team and if there is a team instruction, I will follow it, there is no other point."

Even though they agreed to follow the rules, they are hoping to 'regain the trust' of their team in some races, so as to be allowed to race each other again.

"What we cannot afford for us is to lose more points, things change really quickly in Formula 1 and we see all the teams closing up in terms of pace," started Perez.

"So, we definitely need to score, especially in Spa and Monza, [which] are probably the two strongest races for us, so we definitely have to make sure that we score as many points as we possibly can.

"That’s just for the good of the team, everyone works so hard, at the track, at the factory that we really need to take the maximum out of both cars every single weekend,

"It is not just only about finishing fourth, it’s about how we do it and that’s why we definitely have to make sure that we do it properly," he explained.

Ocon: "I agree with Sergio and we also need to get the boss’ trust back and maybe after some races they will let us race again."

Meanwhile, the Mexican revealed that it was him who went ahead to speak with Ocon earlier in the day and clear the issues they have had, believing that they can still form a 'successful partnership' and work in the interest of the team.

When asked if either of them would want to switch teams and take up the Renault option, should it come by, both added that they are happy in Force India and that their rivalry won't be the point for them to run away.

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