Ayao Komatsu “very proud” of Esteban Ocon as he owns up to Franco Colapinto clash

Ocon took responsibility for his collision with Colapinto at Shanghai, earning praise from his team boss

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu is “very proud” of the way Esteban Ocon handled his collision with Franco Colapinto in Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.

The incident occurred after Colapinto pitted from eighth on lap 32 of the race; the Alpine emerged out of the pits right in front of Ocon, who attempted a late lunge down the inside in the Turns 1-2 curve but ended up with nowhere to go and clipped his rival’s car, with both of them sent into a spin.

Colapinto recovered to score his first point with Alpine, and Ocon apologised to his rival at the end of the race, before speaking to the media.

“I deserve the penalty,” Ocon then said. “I was fighting with Franco the whole race, so that's clearly my fault on that last incident. I was a bit over-optimistic and the gap was not really there.

“I'm glad he still scored a point, because he drove a good race.”

This behaviour earned the Haas driver enthusiastic praise from Komatsu in the Suzuka paddock.

“Esteban straight away accepted that was his mistake,” Haas’ team boss said. “That was, I think, very, very good. He said it straight away in the car, straight away I think after the race, and he spoke to Franco. So, from our side, Esteban was 100% spot on. That's how I like to see our drivers behave. So I'm very proud of Esteban, how he's been behaving.”

Ayao Komatsu, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

Although Colapinto accepted Ocon’s apology and his management pleaded with his supporters to “not send hateful messages or death threats to Esteban”, the latter faced a barrage of abuse on social media – a recurring theme when it comes to Argentinian fans these days. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem responded to those death threats by sending Ocon a letter of support.

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“I cannot control what other people say,” Komatsu pondered. “But all I can say is how Esteban's conducting himself. For me, I'm fully behind him. It takes a big person to own up to mistakes – straight away, no excuse.

“You know, he was racing hard all the race, right? So, he's been frustrated, but then he made a mistake. And then he came up straight away and said, ‘Look, that's on me’, straight away. You can't ask more than that.”

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Haas is going into the third round of the 2026 season, the Japanese Grand Prix, in fourth place in the constructors’ standings – just one point behind reigning world champion McLaren. Oliver Bearman single-handedly achieved this with the 17 points he scored, but this performance doesn’t mean Haas easily is ‘best of the rest’, with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine a clear challenger so far.

“It's very circuit-dependent,” Komatsu analysed. “In Bahrain, Alpine looked very strong, and in Melbourne, I think they were not as strong as everybody expected them to be, right? I don't know what's going on there, so I cannot pinpoint why, but for whatever the reason, they weren't. Then in Shanghai, they were exactly what we expected from Bahrain.

“I don't know who's going to be at the leading edge of the midfield. It's all very close, you know, us, Alpine, Audi and Racing Bulls. We're very, very close. So I think whoever has a better preparation coming to every race weekend, whoever hits the ground running in FP1, improving it, that can swing between the top of the midfield there to the bottom very, very easily. So I don't think anyone is ahead, including us, to be fair.”