Haas ‘expected more’ from Ocon as F1 2026 hope emerges

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu admits that the team “expected more” from a driver with the pedigree of Esteban Ocon in 2025, even if it was not totally the Frenchman’s fault.

But, Komatsu believes that progress has been made in terms of Ocon’s understanding of Haas, and how team and driver works together, after a “very good ongoing talk” over the winter. Ocon is entering a critical year in the context of his Formula 1 career.

Haas needs Esteban Ocon on form in F1 2026

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Following Nico Hulkenberg’s move to Sauber, Ocon arrived at Haas in time for the 2025 campaign. As a grand prix winner, with three further podium results to his name, signing Ocon was seen as quite the coup for Haas.

But, it was a challenging first season with Haas for Ocon, who was narrowly outscored by rookie teammate Oliver Bearman. The final margin between them was three points in Bearman’s favour.

Ocon’s 2025 struggles, and contract situation, saw him mentioned when PlanetF1.com’s Henry Valantine took a look at the F1 2026 drivers most at risk in the upcoming ‘silly season’.

“If you look at purely the sporting result, yeah, without going to details, for sure, nobody’s satisfied with Esteban’s sporting result last year, right?” Komatsu told PlanetF1.com and others.

“He’s a teammate against the rookie. Yes, amazing rookie, but nonetheless, he’s got 10 years of F1 under his belt. He’s a race winner. He’s a podium finisher. So we expected more from him.

“Obviously, it’s not totally his fault at all. It’s 50/50. Sometimes it’s, as a team, we couldn’t give him the car that he was comfortable [with], especially in qualifying. And then some circuits that got exaggerated much more the other side.

“Look at Baku. He really wasn’t happy, certain braking performance. Then he was miles off in the qualifying pace. Yes, Baku happened to be Ollie’s, one of [his] strongest circuits, but we didn’t expect, Esteban’s, let’s say, worst day, to be so far off.

“But again, there’s not one reason. There’s not just a driver, there’s not just a team, and then each instance is different. So there’s no, let’s say, common underlining factor. There’s no golden bullet. But, it’s just a process, how we work together to get to the bottom of it so much quicker, and then put things in place for the next race.

“That’s the bit I feel, we, all us together, team and driver, didn’t do it very well last year, because I really felt like we should have got on top of that quicker.

“Look at Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi on Friday, he was completely off the pace, like four-tenths off Ollie. Saturday, bang, he was on the pace. And then it’s again, not just one big thing, golden bullet, it’s a few, I couldn’t even say little things, a few things that really triggers the, let’s say, snowball effect.

“And there we really have got to get on top of those things quicker, because Esteban’s potential is clear. If you look at Abu Dhabi, what he can do on Saturday, Sunday, coming off the back of a poor Friday, that’s the talent he has. That’s the capability he has. And then 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.”

Fortunately for Haas and Ocon, Komatsu believes progress has been made with this gelling of team and driver ahead of the new season.

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The team continues with Ocon and Bearman as its drivers for F1 2026, as the new regulations come into effect.

“We’ve had a very good ongoing talk over the winter, preparing for this pre-season,” said Komatsu on Ocon.

“And then we understand each other very well. He’s totally clear, what our team is expecting of him, and also I’m totally clear what he needs from the team. We cleared everything, set everything up before the Barcelona shakedown.

“So, I’m really happy with that, and then the way he approached the Barcelona test again, absolutely faultless. We’re working well together as a team. Esteban and Oliver are working well together. We’ve got to work well together to make progress as quickly as possible.

“And then some of the testings we did, and Esteban and Ollie’s feedback are very, very similar, which is, again, very nice in this brand new regulation. In a brand new aero platform, if two drivers said completely different things, it’s going to be difficult. But that’s not the case.

“Same with what they need from, let’s say, PU side of software. Even the simple things like a steering dash display, what do they want. If they had a very conflicting requirement, it’s going to be, I don’t say, waste of resource, but you have to do one job twice.

“Them for small teams like us, it’s going to be a very tall order, but that’s not the case.

“So I think he understands, let’s say, who we are, in terms of size of the team, the resource and how we need to prioritise, but also he understood the way of working a bit better ahead of Barcelona testing, especially in a team like us.

“So I’m sure he can make more contribution this year.”

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