Haas, Komatsu a bit of a stickler Ocon: “No one is satisfied with his results in 2025”

Esteban Ocon’s tough season at Haas For the second consecutive season, Haas begins the World Championship with the same pair of drivers made up of Oliver Bearman, a 20-year-old promising Ferrari student (and contract), and the now expert Esteban Ocon. A line-up that gives confidence to team principal Ayao Komatsu: on the one hand there is the expectation that the Englishman will be able to grow further by acquiring more and more experience in F1, while on the other it is expected that the former Alpine Frenchman will be able to find a greater feeling with the single-seater after a difficult 2025. Difficulties that the Japanese team principal himself did not hide, commenting on the somewhat disappointing performances of the 29-year-old who joined the team with very different conditions. Ayao Komatsu’s comment “If we limit ourselves to looking at the sporting results – explains Komatsu speaking of Ocon – certainly no one can be satisfied with Esteban’s last season. He had a rookie as a teammate, certainly a very strong rookie but in any case he is someone who has 10 years of Formula 1 behind him, someone who has won in F1 and collected podiums. So yes, we would have expected more from him. But obviously it’s not all his fault, let’s say it’s 50% with the team. Sometimes we didn’t give him the car he would have felt comfortable with, especially in qualifying.” “There is never just one reason – adds the boss of the small American team – it is never just the fault of the driver or just the team. There is no magic wand, but it is a process, it is the way in which you work together to get to the bottom of the problems to resolve them. This is the aspect that in my opinion all together, team and driver, we did not manage very well last year, because I really think we should have resolved things more quickly. Look at Abu Dhabi, on Friday Ocon, he was completely off the pace, at four tenths from Bearman, but then on Saturday he was there (he beat his teammate in qualifying, ed. Again, we need to overcome these difficulties more quickly, because Esteban Ocon’s potential is evident. He has talent, he has ability, we need to make sure we use him, because this year we really need two drivers.”