Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu admits that the team \u201cexpected more\u201d from a driver with the pedigree of Esteban Ocon in 2025, even if it was not totally the Frenchman\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n
But, Komatsu believes that progress has been made in terms of Ocon\u2019s understanding of Haas<\/a>, and how team and driver works together, after a \u201cvery good ongoing talk\u201d over the winter. Ocon is entering a critical year in the context of his Formula 1 career.<\/p>\n Haas needs Esteban Ocon on form in F1 2026<\/p>\n Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n Following Nico Hulkenberg\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n Ocon\u2019s 2025 struggles, and contract situation, saw him mentioned when PlanetF1.com\u2019s Henry Valantine took a look at the F1 2026 drivers most at risk<\/a> in the upcoming \u2018silly season\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at purely the sporting result, yeah, without going to details, for sure, nobody\u2019s satisfied with Esteban\u2019s sporting result last year, right?\u201d Komatsu told PlanetF1.com and others.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a teammate against the rookie. Yes, amazing rookie, but nonetheless, he\u2019s got 10 years of F1 under his belt. He\u2019s a race winner. He\u2019s a podium finisher. So we expected more from him.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, it\u2019s not totally his fault at all. It\u2019s 50\/50. Sometimes it\u2019s, as a team, we couldn\u2019t give him the car that he was comfortable [with], especially in qualifying. And then some circuits that got exaggerated much more the other side.<\/p>\n \u201cLook at Baku. He really wasn\u2019t happy, certain braking performance. Then he was miles off in the qualifying pace. Yes, Baku happened to be Ollie\u2019s, one of [his] strongest circuits, but we didn\u2019t expect, Esteban\u2019s, let\u2019s say, worst day, to be so far off.<\/p>\n \u201cBut again, there\u2019s not one reason. There\u2019s not just a driver, there\u2019s not just a team, and then each instance is different. So there\u2019s no, let\u2019s say, common underlining factor. There\u2019s no golden bullet. But, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the bit I feel, we, all us together, team and driver, didn\u2019t do it very well last year, because I really felt like we should have got on top of that quicker.<\/p>\n \u201cLook 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\u2019s again, not just one big thing, golden bullet, it\u2019s a few, I couldn\u2019t even say little things, a few things that really triggers the, let\u2019s say, snowball effect.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd there we really have got to get on top of those things quicker, because Esteban\u2019s 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\u2019s the talent he has. That\u2019s the capability he has. And then we\u2019ve got to harness that. We\u2019ve got to make sure we use that, because we really need two drivers this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, we needed both of them last year, but we need more this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortunately for Haas and Ocon, Komatsu believes progress has been made with this gelling of team and driver ahead of the new season.<\/p>\n More F1 2026 talking points via PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n What if the Honda PU rains on Adrian Newey\u2019s parade?<\/a><\/p>\n F1 overtaking rules: Guidelines, rules of engagement and possible penalties<\/a><\/p>\n The team continues with Ocon and Bearman as its drivers for F1 2026, as the new regulations come into effect.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had a very good ongoing talk over the winter, preparing for this pre-season,\u201d said Komatsu on Ocon.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then we understand each other very well. He\u2019s totally clear, what our team is expecting of him, and also I\u2019m totally clear what he needs from the team. We cleared everything, set everything up before the Barcelona shakedown.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I\u2019m really happy with that, and then the way he approached the Barcelona test again, absolutely faultless. We\u2019re working well together as a team. Esteban and Oliver are working well together. We\u2019ve got to work well together to make progress as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then some of the testings we did, and Esteban and Ollie\u2019s 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\u2019s going to be difficult. But that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n \u201cSame with what they need from, let\u2019s 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\u2019s going to be, I don\u2019t say, waste of resource, but you have to do one job twice.<\/p>\n \u201cThem for small teams like us, it\u2019s going to be a very tall order, but that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think he understands, let\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I\u2019m sure he can make more contribution this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n