Esteban Ocon denies carrying injury at F1 2026 Barcelona test after ‘crutches’ image

Haas driver Esteban Ocon has laughed off suggestions that he was carrying an injury in the F1 2026 shakedown in Barcelona after being spotted holding crutches.

Ocon is preparing for his second full season with Haas in F1 2026 after an inconsistent first season with the team in 2025.

Esteban Ocon pictured holding father’s crutches in F1 2026 Barcelona test

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The French driver claimed a best result of fifth place – achieved in China – as Haas finished eighth in the constructors’ championship with its highest points total since 2018.

Ocon finished three points behind rookie teammate Oliver Bearman in the drivers’ standings, with the latter establishing a pace advantage in the second half of the season as well as matching Haas’s best-ever race result of fourth place in Mexico.

Haas completed the third-most laps (386) of the 10 teams to appear at last week’s F1 2026 shakedown in Barcelona with only Mercedes (500) and Ferrari (442) completing more.

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Ocon was spotted raising a crutch as he watched the action from a grandstand during the behind-closed-doors test.

The image sparked rumours online that Ocon was carrying an injury, but the Haas driver has clarified that the crutches belonged to his father after recent knee surgery.

Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets this week, Ocon laughed as he quipped that the claims that he was injured were “a little bit of an insult.”

Asked what he took away from watching trackside in Barcelona, he began: “People were saying I was driving with crutches. That’s awesome. I don’t know if you’ve seen that.

“My dad basically had surgery on his knee and we were looking at the braking points and how the cars were behaving and how the flap was closing on the front [wing] in Turn 10.

“There was a huge story that came out where people were saying that I had the knee surgery, but that I was OK and cleared by the medical team of the [Haas] team to drive.

“How on earth would I be able to drive an F1 car if I was on crutches?

“I feel like that was a little bit of an insult because you can’t drive an F1 car if you’re injured, that’s for sure!”

He added: “Anyway, it was pretty interesting to watch from the sideline because you could see the different lines and how people were using the engines on the exit of Turn 10.

“It’s very sensible, very important point of the track as well, because from 10 to 12 there were different strategies used by different manufacturers and that was quite interesting, also in the wet.

“Testing is made for that. That’s the only time where I’m going to see the car running from the outside.”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch and Thomas Maher

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