Haas issues Ocon pace ‘challenge’ after ‘no luck’ in Brazilian GP

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has said the team’s “challenge” is about “getting both drivers to perform”, after a tough run of races for Esteban Ocon.

While Oliver Bearman has become the first Haas driver in the team’s history to have scored points in four consecutive races, including a career-best fourth place in Mexico City, Ocon has comparatively struggled, with a ninth place while battling illness in Mexico his only points finish in the last six races.

Haas: ‘Challenge is getting both drivers to perform’ after ‘great momentum’

Haas has managed to keep pace with a tight battle for sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship, with Racing Bulls, Aston Martin, Haas and Sauber all separated by only 20 points with three races to go.

Every place in the Constructors’ standings is worth more than $10m in prize money to the teams, and with Haas being the smallest operation on the grid, that funding is crucial to bring a direct cash injection into the team, alongside its sponsorship income.

While rookie driver Bearman has been on something of a roll of late, Ocon has struggled to reach the same heights by comparison.

A Q1 exit for the French driver in Brazil saw the team opt to change his car setup and start from the pit lane, and while he was able to recover to 12th on the road, Bearman brought home a second consecutive top-six finish for the team.

While Ocon explained the bad luck which befell him early on at Interlagos, team boss Komatsu hopes to see both his drivers make the most of their qualifying potential this weekend, at the American team’s third ‘home’ race of the season.

“Coming to Vegas off the back of another strong result, the team has great momentum, and we know what we’re fighting for,” Komatsu said.

“With three races remaining, we haven’t changed our mindset or approach, we will attack each race at a time.

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“Vegas is a challenging circuit with a very long straight, different from Interlagos. I think with our car’s characteristics, we can fight anywhere.

“The challenge is getting both drivers to perform, as Esteban by his own admission, didn’t get the best out of it in qualifying last time, although his race pace was amazing.

“We need to get both drivers qualifying well to score with both cars, which 100 percent we can do.

“We need to hit the ground running and focus on what we need to do, get the set-up right, and get the most out of the drivers. If we do that, the result will come.”

Ocon himself admitted to “a lot of frustration” after the chequered flag at Interlagos, with more than just an underwhelming qualifying session having halted his race.

He revealed he suffered a puncture around the same time as a puncture befell Max Verstappen, and he lost out on time which could have seen him leap up the field in other circumstances.

Ocon said after the race: “Yes, we started in the pit lane, but we had the puncture just one lap after Max, and that puncture basically was exactly at the time where the race resumed, so I lost, I don’t know, 10 seconds at the time, and that’s what made all the difference.

“I would have finished in front of all those cars if that was not the case.

“Extremely disappointed, really. It’s just no luck, really, from quite a lot of time now that we are dealing with. It’s just not aligning, the plan is for us, but the positive that we can take away is that the pace was okay.

“We got all these cars around and we would have been able to make progress. So, yeah, disappointed with the outcome, for sure.”

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