Haas F1’s Esteban Ocon left the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP without any points but took encouragement from the team’s consistency throughout the weekend.
The 2026 F1 season has been a challenging one for the Frenchman, who has scored points on just two occasions so far and currently sits 17th in the Drivers’ Standings with 3 points. He continues to trail teammate Ollie Bearman in their head-to-head race battle.
Having reached Q2 on Saturday, Ocon started the race from P15, equalling his second-best qualifying result of the season so far. Ultimately, however, he crossed the line to finish the race in P16.
“A lot of positives to take away” from Budapest
Speaking in the print media zone after the race, Ocon explained that the new regulations and cars felt better suited to the Hungaroring and its characteristics, particularly after the previous few rounds brought issues with battery deployment.
“Yeah, it was nice,” he said. “That side of things, to be able to choose a little bit more the gears that we are putting in and the driving style that we want, it’s so much better. It reminds of the old days a little bit.
“So yeah, this track is still my ultimate favourite. I really love it. I had the smile from the start of the weekend to the end, so that’s cool. Obviously, we needed more performance out of the car.”
The Frenchman highlighted the positives from Haas’ consistency throughout the weekend, as they managed to find a good balance in the car from Friday to Sunday. However, he admitted that the team continues to struggle in race conditions, where tyre degradation exposes their weaknesses and makes it harder to match their rivals’ pace.
“There’s a lot of positives to take away. We had the consistency back, the car was healthy all weekend. We managed to keep the same performance from Friday to Saturday to Sunday and the same car balance, etc. So that was good.
“But ultimately now, the Astons are one more contender for fighting. And with the degradation that is in play, you are struggling a lot more on our side. We have a lot of sliding, we have all of that.
“So as soon as we go into race mode, we struggle more with the pace. And that shows the lack of grip that we have.”
Consistency at 2026 F1 Hungarian GP was “the biggest win” for Ocon and Haas
“Yeah, definitely the biggest win of the weekend on that side. Getting the car healthy, getting the maximum out of the car this weekend felt good,” Ocon said when asked if consistency was the biggest positive to takeaway from the weekend ahead of the summer break.
“There’s a lot of stuff on my side that took long, but they are finally on my car as well, which I’m very happy about. The team did a great job. We’ve done the right work. Of course, we need to keep that going because there’s still a lot of things that we don’t understand. So we’ll see how that goes.”
The balance and consistency issues regarding parts have become a recurring problem for both Haas drivers. Ollie Bearman, who finished P19 on Sunday, lacked confidence in his car throughout the weekend as the team continues to address the issue. He also faced a lack of downforce as parts were not working as they should, a pretty common theme for the team in 2026.
When asked whether the team had found answers to these ongoing issues, Ocon said: “No, because it happened to Ollie on Friday as well. It happened more on my side than his side, but obviously it was a bit of a shock because it happened on his side as well. And the team is still looking deep inside what exactly it could be.
“I don’t know about Saturday exactly how it was for him, but on Friday clearly we saw a loss of downforce on his side. He had exactly the same problems I had until this race, until Silverstone, let’s say. We know that’s an ongoing issue. Now, of course, we need a bit more understanding for it not to come back again.”
Ocon weighs in on issues with blue flags during the race
Issues with the blue flag panels throughout the race caused confusion among drivers. With Bearman even receiving a penalty as a result, Ocon explained what happened with the flags throughout the afternoon.
“We didn’t have any feedback on the dash, on the cars. We only had the blue flag panels, but not with our numbers,” he said. “For example, I was racing Isack [Hadjar] exit of pit lane, but I was a lap down and I didn’t know.
“I might have blocked him for three corners, but by the time the engineers told me, well, you’re not racing him, you don’t know because the blue flag is always flashing the whole lap. So yeah, it’s not really clear.”
