Esteban Ocon has praised the work of his team engineers following a positive F1 Miami GP qualifying performance which will see him start the race in ninth position.
After a disappointing Sprint race result of 14th, Ocon redeemed himself with an impressive qualifying performance. Narrowly avoiding a high-speed crash which could have taken him out in Q2, the Frenchman eventually finished P9, slotting in between Charles Leclerc and Yuki Tsunoda.
Ocon: F1 Miami GP “best quali of the year so far”
Following a less-than-ideal start to the weekend with the Sprint race, Haas had a lot to improve on for qualifying – and improve they did. Ocon attributed his performance to the quick actions of his engineers to alter the car’s set-up going into the session:
“Probably the best quali of the year so far for us. We really turned the car around in terms of set-up to try and improve from the issues that we had in the sprint race,” he said.
“The sprint race was really tricky. One, we faced a lot of issues with the car and we’ve overcome most of those. I’m still going to say there are some more that we need to overcome.”
He continued: “But honestly, we maximised the potential we have, which definitely feels good. It’s [a] good relief for everyone because we’ve been through quite a lot of tough times lately in Jeddah and also in the practice here, it hasn’t been easy. But this quali, nothing much more that we could have done.”
When asked if this performance inspired confidence that the team is heading in the right direction, Ocon praised the “awesome” efforts of his Haas engineers:
“Very encouraging. My engineering team did an awesome job and they can be proud of what we’ve done today.”
‘Draining’ F1 Miami GP weekend plagued with inconsistencies
Ocon’s teammate Ollie Bearman, however, did not share the same positive experience. He finished bottom of the grid in qualifying, and will therefore start in last place for Sunday’s race.
When asked if this result is surprising, Ocon responded:
“Yes, and this is what we need to work on. Our consistency.”
Despite both drivers running the same setup in the car, Ocon stated that there has proven to be huge discrepancies in performance. And during an action-packed Sprint weekend like Miami, the Frenchman expressed the importance of analysing each session thoroughly:
“The window of our car is really, really small. And even though you try and put the cars together in the same setup, we still see at times big differences across cars. And we need to work on that, have more consistency out of it. But we have some plans coming into the next races for that.
“We will just analyse today first because it’s been a long day, a draining one. But it’s good to be starting in the points, and hopefully we can bring the car home from there.”
Ocon: Sprint weekends good in small doses
It’s undeniable that Sprint weekends take a toll on drivers and teams alike, given that there’s more at stake with multiple point-scoring opportunities. While there have been debates around the need for Sprint weekends at all, Ocon seems to believe that they still have a place in F1:
“I like them [when we have] one week off, race, one week off.
“But this and a triple [header] would be something else. And you don’t want too many of those. But like this, I think it’s good.”
Ocon “really impressed” with FIA’s Sprint delays
Saturday’s Sprint race was slightly delayed due to heavy rainfall, causing severe issues with spray and visibility on track. Ocon praised the decision to push the start of the race back, despite there being enough grip to potentially continue:
“They honestly [did] super well, the FIA. Really impressed with the new race director because we couldn’t see anything, obviously, and straight away they called it, even though the grip level was good.
“But it was kind of weird with the glare of the sun, how the humidity stays in the air. We all had issues with our tear-offs as well, with some water getting in there.
“It’s very weird that we couldn’t see as much as that. And then we restarted, it was quite safe, obviously, because it was quite dry. But this is what we need, otherwise it wouldn’t have been safe.”
