Ocon: Relationship with F1 team-mate Ricciardo better than Perez

The Frenchman came to blows on track with Perez several times during their two seasons together at Force India. For a period, the pair were banned by their team bosses from racing each other.

But while Ocon has no desire to be a pushover on track against Ricciardo, he expects no repeat of the kind of 'unacceptable' incidents that marred his time against Perez.

"What happened in Force India is not something I want to re-do again," said Ocon, when asked by Autosport how he compares his Ricciardo relationship to that of Perez.

"It was not a nice atmosphere. It didn't slow down the team or anything, but the atmosphere between us was not so good.

"On track we came close too many times, that was clear. That was not good.

"It's not something I want to do again. Definitely the atmosphere is a lot better between me and Daniel than it was with Checo.

"So, I think if we can keep working like that, even though it's going to be different on track, it's going to be a lot better, just for everyone, just to have a positive energy and a great working environment.

"Hopefully we're going to be solid on that topic and be able to push the team forward.

"We don't want to have that [crashes] happening.

"Of course it can always happen on the start or something, but in the race like it happened it was not acceptable."

Ricciardo said he was not worried about any 'fun and games' with Ocon, and doesn't feel the need to lay down any ground rules on how they raced each other.

"I'm definitely coming into it with a fresh approach," said the Australian. "I don't want to lay any rules down from day one, because I think already that will create a tension in itself like: 'oh, so you're anticipating something!'

"Maybe he had his things in the past, even with Max, but I need to create something for myself with him.

"So I'm not going to come in with any kind of ideas or hesitations.

"I'm prepared for competition, but I'm not prepared for fun and games.

"If down the track fun and games appear then I'll deal with them at the time, but I think I'm certainly coming in with open minds and positivity, as opposed to, 'oh shit when's it going to blow up?' I'm not thinking like that."

Team principal Cyril Abiteboul underlined that his two drivers were mature enough to sort any problems they had between themselves.

"I think that they've got the experience, they've got the level of professionalism," he said. "I like to believe also that they have peace of mind to deal with this sort of situation.

"But if I need to step in, I will step in.