Haas hold key Esteban Ocon talks after underwhelming debut season

Haas boss Ayao Komatsu has revealed the talks he has held with Esteban Ocon after a difficult first season for the Frenchman with the team.

After moving from Alpine for 2025, Ocon was nominally the Haas team leader, given he was paired with rookie Oliver Bearman, but finished 15th in the drivers' championship on 38 points, three points and two places below Bearman.

The Ferrari junior also beat Ocon 14-10 in the qualifying head-to-head battles, and on average had a 0.103s advantage. 

However, from the middle part of the season, Ocon was struggling with the feeling from the brakes of his car, especially in qualifying, which coincided with a rich vein of form from Bearman. 

The team finished eighth in the constructors', just 13 points behind Racing Bulls in sixth, with team boss Komatsu believing that both sides of the partnership need to step up to extract Ocon's "clear potential."

"In terms of Esteban, we had a very good talk, an ongoing talk over the winter, preparing for this pre-season," Komatsu told media, including RacingNews365.

"We understand each other very well, and he is totally clear what our team is expecting from him, and I am totally clear with what he needs from the team.

"We cleared everything, and I'm happy with the way we approached the Barcelona test. We are working well together and need to make progress as quickly as possible.

"If you look at the pure sporting results, without going into details, then for sure, nobody is satisfied with Esteban's sporting results last year. 

"He has a team-mate who was a rookie, an amazing rookie, but nonetheless, he's got 10 years of experience, he is a race-winner and podium-finisher, so we expected more from him, but it is totally not his fault. It's 50-50 as we couldn't give him a car in which he was comfortable, especially in qualifying.

"In Baku, he wasn't happy with braking performance, and in qualifying, he was miles off, and yes, Baku is one of Ollie's strongest circuits, but we didn't expect one of Esteban's worst days to be so far off, but again, there is not one reason. 

"There's no common underlying factor, but it's a process of how we get to the bottom of it much quicker and put things in place for the next race. 

"That's the bit I feel we, us altogether, team and driver, didn't do very well last year, because we should have got on top of it. 

"In Abu Dhabi, on Friday, he was completely off the pace, like four-tenths, and then on Saturday, bang, he was on the pace.

"There are a few little things which trigger, let's say, a snowball effect, and we need to get on top of them because Esteban's potential is clear, if you look at Abu Dhabi, that's the talent he has.

"That's the capability he has, and we've got to harness that; we've got to make sure we use that because we really need two drivers this year. I mean, we needed both of them last year, but we need more this year."

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Working closer together

For F1's new era, Komatsu also explained how both Ocon and Bearman were giving the same feedback after the Barcelona shakedown test, something key for the team.

"The feedback is very similar to [between Ocon and Bearman], which is nice in these regulations, in a brand-new aero platform, as if the drivers have completely different [views], it is going to be difficult, but that is not the case. 

"If they had very conflicting requirements, it wouldn't be a waste of resources, but you have to do the job twice, and for small teams like us, it is going to be a very tall order.

"So I think he understands who we are in terms of size of the team, the resources and how we need to prioritise, but also the way of working a bit better ahead of Barcelona, especially in a team like us, so I am sure he can make more of a contribution this year."