Esteban Ocon has revealed that he has received numerous death threats via social media since colliding with team-mate Sergio Perez earlier this season, but on his arrival to his team-mates home race in Mexico, the welcome he has received has been very warm.
Ocon and Perez had high profile clashes in both the Azerbaijan and Belgian Grand Prix that ultimately saw their Sahara Force India F1 Team bosses issue team orders to avoid a repeat, but the Frenchman said the messages on social media were crazy, and he was not sure whether to take the death threats seriously.
“I was expecting a bit of a tough welcome this week looking at all the Twitter messages I received, which was crazy – and all the death messages as well,” said Ocon on Motorsport.com. “But actually I had a very warm welcome from the beginning. Let’s see if it continues. I hope it will.
“It was messages on social media. I don’t know if you take that seriously or not. It’s never great to receive things like that. But it’s all fine at the moment so I hope it stays like that.
“I think the last one was yesterday. But apart from Twitter, in the real world everyone welcomed me very well and they are pushing for the team as well, not only Checo [Perez].”