BUXTON: The Pink Wedding

It's rare that I find myself in complete agreement with Jacques Villenueve and yet in the aftermath of the Belgian Grand Prix I found his take on the race's biggest flash point to be a soaring moment of clarity in a sea of clouded excuses.

"This is the most dangerous thing you can do in racing and they never penalize that in F1," he said. "Sometimes, people crash into each other because they messed up their braking and their fighting. That should not be penalized but they penalize that because there was an accident.

"This was embarrassing. They don't give a penalty for it, especially when the FIA is pushing so much the safety. Even a four-year-old could see it. It's ridiculous."

The 1997 Formula 1 world champion was, of course, referring to the contact between Force India's Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon on the run down from the La Source hairpin to Eau Rouge.

"It doesn't matter that it's his teammate," he said. "Teammate, no teammate, it should not have happened between two drivers. You're not so supposed to put anyone in danger.

"You can brake too late, make a mistake, fine, but down the straight you don't weave and squish – you just don't do that. It's ridiculous."

Villeneuve's ire was reflected in the immediate online postings of the aggrieved party in the incident, Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman, celebrating his first anniversary of being a Formula 1 driver, took to social media to claim his teammate had twice tried to kill him, words he later regretted and attempted to diffuse with a more conciliatory tone the next morning.

But the damage had been done. And trial by social media ensued. Video replays, still shots and screengrabs were posted in an attempt to apportion blame or excuse action. And yet it got nobody anywhere.

"No further action" was the decision of the race stewards on the day, and is something which even here on the ground in Monza I find hard to fathom. Their reasoning, explained to the press post-race by the FIA's F1 Media Delegate, was that no penalty had been applied to either driver because Ocon had put a wheel over the white line on the run down to the wall that separates the track from the F2 pitlane. Considered a "safety line," his running over it had, they believed, placed him over the limit of the track and therefore in a position he should not have been. Perez, as the lead car had the right to take his chosen line, and while contact may have been initiated by his positioning, the fact that Ocon was where he shouldn't have been meant it was a 50-50 collision.

The FIA race stewards have at their disposal a tremendous amount of data, video angles and slow motion replays. They also have eyeballs and common sense. Sometimes they use all of these facets. At the same time. Other times... seemingly not so much.

Ocon's move is set up at La Source. Taking the higher line, he cuts in at a steep angle to get the run on Perez down the hill. At this moment, replays on board with the Frenchman clearly show Perez make a distinct single move to the right. Ocon edges his car to the right in reaction but is still well within track limits. As they approach the wall, Perez then begins a second move. As Ocon's front wheels draw alongside the rears of his teammate, space is running out and the No. 31 is edged ever so slightly over the white line before contact, front wing damage for Ocon and a puncture for Perez.

The stewards' reasons for not apportioning any blame thus falls down in two major regards for me. The first is in their decision that Ocon had moved over a safety line and was thus off track, for if a singular wheel being on or over a line now equates to a car exceeding track limits then we must assume a new precedent has been set where before only all four wheels over said line equated to an off-track position.

But if we accept this seemingly arbitrary decision that Ocon was outside track limits we must ask why. Because he had no need to be. There is ample space for two, and if well-judged three cars to run side by side down the hill from La Source to Eau Rouge. Ocon had his front wing and the majority of his front tire alongside Perez's rears by the time the movement of the leading car forced him onto the line. By the FIA's own rules, if a trailing driver has a "significant" part of their car alongside the one they are attempting to pass, then the leading car must provide at least a car's width to the edge of the track. That "significant" part of a car has always been accepted to be the front wing or more. Therefore, to take the FIA's own rules, if Ocon had a significant part of his car alongside Perez, but was not afforded a full car's width of racing room, then it follows that Perez should at the very least have been investigated if not found guilty of forcing another car off track.

That's just the rules. Rules which, for some reason, seem not to have been applied.

Perhaps if they'd not been teammates we might have seen some action. Perhaps if the result of the incident had been grander we may have seen action.

There's a line of thinking that the stewards were lenient in order to allow Force India itself to settle the score. Yet if we've seen one thing this season it is that such a hope was wishful at best.

If anyone is to take responsibility for the verbal and physical battle that has erupted between Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, then it is Force India's management. Their drivers' fallout has been brewing for months, ever since the acrimonious end to the Canadian Grand Prix, but even contact between the two in Baku wasn't enough for a strong line to be drawn under the issue by those at the head of the operation.

By means of a quick catch-up, in Canada Ocon had been put on an alternate strategy that saw him swiftly catch and arguably have the pace to battle with not only his teammate ahead of him, but the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo which sat just a few meters further up the road. He asked to be allowed a chance to fight for the podium, but rather than Force India placing a team order on Perez, they simply asked the Mexican if he would give his teammate the opportunity, on the proviso that if he was unsuccessful, he would give the place back. Standard fare in modern F1. But Perez refused.

It's important to note here that Force India never gave a direct team order. They merely asked a question of their driver, who, being a racing driver, wanted to stay where he was.

This bubbled over to Baku, where in a wheel-to-wheel fight on a restart, Ocon gave Perez less room than he needed and the duo collided. While the positioning of Perez at Turn 2 was a gamble, Ocon could and should have given more room. The move lost the team not only a brace of points, but potentially a win. Possibly even a 1-2.

The intensity of the Perez/Ocon fight has been one of the talking points of the season. Sergio Perez came into 2017 with his stock never higher. As teammates he'd taken on and leveled or beaten Nico Hulkenberg, one of the highest regarded drivers in the sport, ultimately forcing the German to Renault to find a different challenge. After the negative press Perez had received following his single year at McLaren, his years at Force India and multiple podiums had rebuilt his reputation and made him one of the most sought after drivers in the sport. He very nearly signed for Williams alongside Jenson Button for 2017, at Button's request no less, so well considered was he by his former team-mate and 2009 world champion.

Yet in Esteban Ocon, Perez has faced his stiffest opponent yet. There is no doubt that the petulance we have witnessed from the Mexican in 2017, the mistakes, the aggression, come from a place of frustration. In his eyes there is no way a kid, still a rookie, should have been able to get so close to him in qualifying or race scenarios. And yet he was. I haven't seen Perez racing this way since he was partnered with Edoardo Mortara in GP2. The two seemed to have magnets attached, much as today. Because Checo had a challenge.

When quizzed about the Spa debacle, Perez stated he didn't see what he could have done differently to have avoided the collision. It felt almost churlish to mention he had three quarters of the track to his left-hand side that might have made a difference. But the tone was clear. He was unrelenting and unrepentant. One could argue he has little need to be.

Why was no team order placed on him in Canada? Why is it that, on multiple occasions this year, when Ocon has been put on an alternate strategy that might play to his favor, he has been left out beyond the life of his tires and forced into a position of deference to his teammate? There is a growing feeling in the paddock that Sergio Perez holds the balance of power at Force India. And that, with the team stating it may put a stop to its drivers racing, that it is now that the Mexican will play his full hand and require absolute number one status.

You see, Perez brings money. A lot of money. For a team running on one of the smallest budgets in Formula 1, Sergio Perez's sponsors represent a huge percentage of the team's income. Perez has not signed for 2018. And the team knows it almost lost him last season. With a rivalry unhealthy for Perez's reputation burning with Ocon, it is Perez who now holds the cards in his negotiations over his future at the squad. They literally cannot afford to lose him.

Neither driver yesterday would commit their long-term future to the team for as long as the other was still there. And while the public face says that everything is fine and everyone is moving on, the reality may not be so clear or so simple.

Unless they get on top of this situation, Force India could lose its most successful driver and the man who brings in a large percentage of its funding. Yet even if they manage to achieve this, the result is that they could stand to lose another driver who many here believe is a future world champion.

If they lose either, they have nobody to blame but themselves. It was their meekness in handling this emerging conflict that pushed the team and their drivers into this situation. Force India must now find the strength to resolve and placate this war, and ensure the financial stability and racing future of their outfit.