Esteban Ocon described his 2026 F1 Canadian GP as “hard work” after the upgrades the Haas team brought to its cars that weekend left a lot to be desired.
Ocon took the chequered flag at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in fourteenth, finishing outside of the points and four places behind teammate Ollie Bearman. Ahead of the weekend, Haas brought a number of upgrades to its cars, including revised bodywork, a new floor and rear suspension tweaks. Bearman received the upgrades for every session, while Ocon ran the previous set-up for sprint qualifying and the sprint race, receiving the upgrades during Saturday’s qualifying session.
Haas car upgrades brought more problems than solutions
These upgrades didn’t put Haas in the position they expected to be in, with Ocon describing Sunday’s race at the F1 Canadian GP as particularly challenging.
“We had a problem with the car definitely in this race,” he said. “[There] was, I think, not one lap where I didn’t manage to lock the front tyre. Turn 10 was definitely the big one, but I went off, I think, twice in turn 8 as well during the race.
“Obviously, we put the update in qualifying yesterday. We did two laps with it. It was difficult to really see if everything was working well, but clearly in the race there was a problem with the car.
“We’ll try and fix it for Monaco and come back there better.”
Asked whether he thought the tyre locking was the biggest problem with the new upgrades, Ocon responded that pace seemed to be a more pressing issue.
“I was one second slower than where I should be every lap,” he said. “I think the update should bring more to the car.
“Now, we put it quickly after qualifying. There’s a lot that we need to review after the weekend. There was clearly something that failed on my car that didn’t work.”
Ocon: Haas strategy the sole positive from F1 Canadian GP
Differences in tyre strategy caused early drama at the F1 Canadian GP, as light rain saw some teams opting for intermediates, while others chose to stick with slicks. The latter proved to be the better option, and the one Haas had opted for – something Ocon was grateful for among the issues with his car.
“We survived the start,” he said. “It was a good fight with Fernando [Alonso] all the way into lap one; it actually stopped raining two or three laps in, so it was a very good call from us to stay on the softs.
“It was quite clear from where we were standing, but you’re never sure [if] it’s going to rain more. The strategy was the positive out of that race.”
There was a noticeable increase in overtakes and wheel-to-wheel racing at the F1 Canadian GP this year.
Tweaked regulations were brought in regarding energy deployment following Japan, after drivers complained the new 2026 power units were too complex to manage. The tweaks may have made the racing look more natural to a spectator, but Ocon denied there was any change from the cockpit.
“I was racing with Checo [Perez], and actually, we had 30-40km/h closing speeds, so it was big. I don’t think that has changed massively.”
