{"id":825201,"date":"2026-07-25T12:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/825201\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T12:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:25:08","slug":"for-once-it-was-good-why-esteban-ocon-is-upbeat-after-haas-address-consistency-issues-in-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/825201\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018For once, it was good\u2019 \u2013 Why Esteban Ocon is upbeat after Haas address consistency issues in Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"

While most of the focus in Budapest on Friday was on Aston Martin\u2019s upgrade package and an encouraging day for Fernando Alonso, another driver was quietly making progress following a difficult recent run.<\/p>\n

For much of this season Esteban Ocon<\/a> has been frustrated by issues with his Haas<\/a> VF-26, with Silverstone<\/a> the only recent race where he had no complaints.<\/p>\n

The team have tried changing parts, but consistency has proved something of an issue, and it\u2019s not been easy for the team to make the French driver feel comfortable. That process continued into the Hungaroring<\/a> weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still working on it,\u201d Ocon said on media day. \u201cWe are changing a lot of parts on the car once again. It won’t be the same engine, it won’t be the same floor, we have a different rear wing, so a lot of the parts are going to be different. So we’ll monitor the situation and see how it is in FP1.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there’s a lot less straight line speed [at the Hungaroring], but the concerning thing for me here was really the downforce on the rear that we were lacking, and the imbalance between front and rear that was not supposed to happen in Spa on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we are going to monitor the situation. Hopefully, we’ll be okay here because it was fine in Silverstone, so there should be no reason that this persists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu has admitted that Ocon\u2019s concerns are fully justified, while adding that Ollie Bearman<\/a> has also been impacted at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe inconsistencies we are having with, let’s say, car quality, we cannot pinpoint,\u201d Komatsu said on Thursday. \u201cSome of it we can pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from, and we can rectify it. But if you don’t understand exactly where that’s coming from, it’s difficult. Obviously, you cannot solve it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s an ongoing thing that really needs to improve. It doesn’t just happen on Esteban’s car \u2013 it happens on both cars at different points. So it’s something we really need to solve, because it’s very, very important to have that consistency.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be able to have confidence putting the same spec assembly on the car, and perform in exactly the same manner. So that’s something we really need to solve as quickly as possible, and get on top of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team tried once more to solve Ocon\u2019s issues for the Hungaroring weekend, with a small rear wing update also adding some useful downforce.<\/p>\n

And it all seemed to work. On a day made difficult by wind, along with a dusty and bumpy track, a lot of drivers had complaints \u2013 but in contrast Ocon was more than happy, taking P12 in both Friday sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor once, it was good,\u201d he said after the second session. \u201cWe had a very good Friday, very positive. I think looking at the last couple of events, the last races, we really struggled, with some major issues. And today there weren’t any, but we need to keep that going for tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, there’s a fresh engine that needs to go in [on Saturday], so we hope that’s not going to change the overall performance of the car. We’ve seen it did in the past, so we’ll keep an eye on that, from when you take the car apart, to when you put it back together.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that’s going to be our focus, to keep the consistency of the car the same, and hopefully, have the same day tomorrow because today was good. So far it seems to be good. It’s been a while, so we’ll see how that continues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Komatsu’s optimism was shared by Haas’ Head of Car Engineering Hoagy Nidd, who also made an intriguing revelation about a specific change intended to help Ocon feel more comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cEsteban is pretty pleased with the car,\u201d said Nidd. \u201cHe’s on top of the through corner balance issues. He’s got a new steering rack on the car that he’s very happy with.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he’s pretty pleased with it overall. A few issues locking into Turn 1, but I think almost every car on the grid has done that today.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Nidd downplayed the suggestion that the steering rack had contributed to the recent issues for Ocon: \u201cNo, he’s always wanted lighter steering on this car. We managed to get that for him, so he was pretty happy right from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having Ocon back on top form is timely for Haas as the team have been losing out in the midfield battle<\/a> of late, having failed to score a point across the last four races.<\/p>\n

One thing that the team cannot afford is a repeat of the sort of self-inflicted drama seen at Spa, where the races of both drivers were compromised by punctures after first lap contact. Komatsu has made his feelings clear on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again,\u201d he said. \u201cAs always, on Sunday after the race, I just wanted to hear points of view from both sides, and then I put my point of view. And then we spoke about it, and then in the days after as well \u2013 so it’s all fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the reason, it just cannot happen again. Full stop. So we\u2019ve just got to have clear rules of engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While most of the focus in Budapest on Friday was on Aston Martin\u2019s upgrade package and an encouraging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-825201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}