Formula 1 Haas launch
“We expected more” from Esteban Ocon – Haas
Team boss Ayao Komatsu expected better from his lead driver in 2025, but reaffirmed his confidence in the Frenchman
Ben Vinel Oleg Karpov
Published: Feb 7, 2026, 9:09 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team, Ayao Komatsu, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has admitted he expected better from Esteban Ocon in the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Ocon joined Haas last year after leaving his longtime Alpine outfit, teaming up with Oliver Bearman, but against all expectations he was outscored by his rookie team-mate over the 2025 campaign, with 38 points to 41.
Bearman also outqualified his elder 17-11 (excluding technical issues), and these statistics were no fluke. Ocon’s results were up and down; as the season progressed and the young Briton’s form ramped up, he found himself outperformed more and more often.
Ocon was growing increasingly unhappy with his car’s behaviour, especially under braking, but Komatsu believed the problem lay with his driving style – given Bearman had no such issue.
All things considered, Ocon’s inaugural campaign at Haas did not live up to expectations, and his team principal is very open about it.
“If you purely look at the sporting result, without going to details, for sure nobody's satisfied with Esteban's sporting result last year, right?” Komatsu said. “You know, he's a team-mate against a 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.
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team VF-25, Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal of Haas F1, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team VF-25
Photo by: Haas F1 Team
“And obviously, it's not totally his fault, it's 50-50, right? Sometimes it's the team, we couldn't give him the car that he was comfortable [with], especially in qualifying.
“And then some circuits, that's got exaggerated much more than other circuits. Look at Baku, you know, he really wasn't happy with certain braking performance, then he was miles off in the qualifying pace. Yes, Baku happened to be one of Ollie’s strongest circuits, but we didn't expect Esteban's 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 common underlying factor, there's no [silver] bullet; it's just a process, how we work together to get the bottom of it so much quicker and then put things in place for next race.
“That's the bit I feel we – all of 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.”
Komatsu brought up last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Ocon struggled so much on Friday that he told Canal+ he “felt like a rookie who’s never driven an F1 car”.
“There’s a lot of instability,” he then added. “I feel like I can’t drive anymore, I can’t put a lap together anymore. It’s been unmanageable for many races.
“We can’t solve the issues and it doesn’t fit my driving style, so… We’re just slow. We’re very, very far from where we should be.”
Yet, he narrowly outqualified Bearman to reach Q3; he then took a fine seventh in the race, from eighth on the grid.
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
“Look at Abu Dhabi on Friday, he was completely off the pace, like four tenths off Ollie; Saturday, bang, he was on the pace,” Komatsu pointed out.
“Again, it's not just one big [silver] bullet, it's a few – I wouldn't say little things, but I could even say little things, few things that really trigger, let's say, a snowball effect. And then we’ve really 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 very 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.”
Read Also:
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Andrea Stella: F1 2026 reliability fears 'vanished' in Barcelona shakedown
Next article F1 regulation change comes at a good time for younger drivers - Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Ben Vinel
George Russell has lost 90 points to Max Verstappen in F1 2026 runner-up battle
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
2 h
George Russell has lost 90 points to Max Verstappen in F1 2026 runner-up battle
Oscar Piastri splits from Mark Webber management
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
7 h
Oscar Piastri splits from Mark Webber management
More from
Esteban Ocon
Fred Vasseur personally contributed $1m to Esteban Ocon’s first F1 drive
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
Fred Vasseur personally contributed $1m to Esteban Ocon’s first F1 drive
Ayao Komatsu: Esteban Ocon axing ‘surprised everybody at Haas’
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
Ayao Komatsu: Esteban Ocon axing ‘surprised everybody at Haas’
More from
Haas F1 Team
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
18 h
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Haas justifies picking Rafael Camara over Ryo Hirakawa for F1 Brazilian GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
Haas justifies picking Rafael Camara over Ryo Hirakawa for F1 Brazilian GP
Latest news
Brad Keselowski reflects on 2026 and expects "lots of soul searching" in off-season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
7 min
Brad Keselowski reflects on 2026 and expects "lots of soul searching" in off-season
What's behind Oscar Piastri's split with Mark Webber – and what it means for his F1 career
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
22 min
What's behind Oscar Piastri's split with Mark Webber – and what it means for his F1 career
Shane van Gisbergen gets new crew chief for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
29 min
Shane van Gisbergen gets new crew chief for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
Conquest Racing locks in 2027 IMSA GTD lineup with Manny Franco full-time return
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 49 min
Conquest Racing locks in 2027 IMSA GTD lineup with Manny Franco full-time return
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe