© Eric Alonso / DPPI
While his teammate Oliver Bearman flirted with the Top 10 until entering it in FP2, Esteban Ocon had a more difficult first day in Austin, Texas.
On Haas ‘ home turf , the Frenchman would obviously like to achieve a good result at the United States Grand Prix, his final visit to Austin with the American team. The first day of free practice on Friday revealed wheel lock-up issues, mainly at the front, meaning that for the time being, the number 31 car has to drive cautiously.
“The conditions are good, but it’s quite bumpy all around the circuit. We’ve been struggling since the start of Friday; we’re not in the right group, and it seems like we’re locking the front wheels in every corner. It’s very difficult to attack the corners at the moment; I run wide if I try. We’re missing something.”
After a series of more positive Grands Prix, thanks in particular to an upgrade introduced by Haas at Monza that has been working well since Madrid, Esteban Ocon seems to fear a return to the vicious cycle experienced just before and after the summer break, with the VF-26 proving highly inconsistent depending on the parts fitted. Following several changes compared to the Singapore car, Ocon’s loss of feel behind the wheel could indicate that the consistency issue has not yet been resolved.
“We changed a few parts compared to Singapore, so we need to understand why we’re getting this result. At the moment, it’s not promising, but we’ll continue to analyze everything, hoping for a better Saturday. The problem is that, as we’ve seen in the past, we’ve never really understood this issue and we’ve never completely solved it. I hope that will be the case this time, and I have complete faith in the team that they will do everything they can to achieve it, but it’s not very promising at the moment.”
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