Esteban Ocon issues response to Haas boss performance criticism

Esteban Ocon has admitted he was not surprised to read Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu's critical comments over his 2025 performance.

Following the launch of Haas' new car, Komatsu was asked about Ocon's challenging season with the team last year, his first following his arrival from Alpine.

He stated that “nobody is satisfied with Esteban's sporting results” after the Frenchman was beaten by rookie team-mate Oliver Bearman in the head-to-head metrics.

However, Haas conceded that it shared some of the blame for Ocon's lacklustre performances as he was challenged by a recurring brake issue.

Ocon, however, was not taken aback by the honesty of Komatsu's assessment.

“It was not really a surprise to see Ayao's comments,” Ocon told media including RacingNews365. “We talked a lot during the winter.

“It's been an up-and-down season for the whole team. It hasn't been very straightforward. 

“But, when you read the whole article and less the headline, you can see that the team has taken responsibility as well – Ayao said it was 50-50.

“I said it many times last year for 12, 13, 14 races, I had this issue of front-locking, instability. This is something that was very different on the other side of the garage. 

“It's not a matter of confidence or just not managing to drive the kind of driving style. 

“It was similar pressure on the brakes, similar condition across the two cars – locking for me, not on the other side.”

Ocon's brake concern was fixed in the build-up to the season finale in Abu Dhabi, where he ended the season with a strong seventh-place result.

“That was the case until Friday in Abu Dhabi,” he said. “Whatever we changed in Abu Dhabi, I'm not going to go into detail because that's down to us inside, but whatever we changed, suddenly the car came back to life.

“I was half a second away from where I should be on Friday, and then on Saturday morning we performed the way we should. Great Q3, finished seventh in the race, which is what we needed for the whole season.”

With a new season about to commence, Ocon is hopeful the lessons of a tough season can be applied to his second year with the team.

“We are working all together, always trying to do the best. There are things that we missed as a team, overall, and that we should have done better. 

“I'm expecting that we all do that this year and we put last year behind [us].”