A week after Ayao Komatsu’s review of his 2025 F1 season, Esteban Ocon responded to the team principal’s statements, admitting he was not surprised by it.
Ahead of the 2026 F1 Bahrain tests, Haas F1 team principal Ayao Komatsu admitted that the team “expected more” from Ocon in 2025. Ocon joined Haas from Alpine in 2025 alongside rookie Oliver Bearman. Despite expectations, he was outscored by three points, where Bearman outraced him 11 times and outqualified him 14 times.
Following the Bahrain tests, Ocon responded to Komatsu’s statements saying, “It was not really a surprise to see Ayao’s comments.”
His 2025 campaign was inconsistent, largely due to braking issues. Komatsu admitted Haas failed to provide a car Ocon felt comfortable with and shared responsibility for the season’s struggles.
Speaking in Bahrain, Ocon said:
“We talked a lot during the winter, and obviously, it’s been an up-and-down season for the whole team. It hasn’t been very straightforward. But, when you read the whole article, you can see that the team has taken responsibility as well – Ayao said it was 50-50.”
Ocon and Bearman share contrasting driving styles and that was clearly visible throughout the 2025 season. The VF25’s braking instability hindered Ocon’s performance more than Bearman’s. Ocon said:
“I said it many times last year for 12, 13, 14 races, I had this issue of front-locking, this issue of instability,” he added. “This is something that was very different on the other side of the garage.
“It’s not a matter of confidence or just not managing to drive the kind of driving style. It was similar pressure on the brakes, similar condition across the two cars – locking for me, not on the other side.”
Ayao Komatsu and Esteban Ocon back his Abu Dhabi F1 potential
Ayao Komatsu earlier lauded Esteban Ocon’s capability in 2025 season finale where he overcame a very daunting Friday to outqualify his teammate and claim seventh in the race. Ocon also claimed that he “felt like a rookie” after the Friday practices. However, the American outfit managed to turn the car’s setup around, resulting in a Q3 finish and points for Ocon.
Ocon referred to his performance saying, “That was the case until Friday in Abu Dhabi.
“Whatever we changed in Abu Dhabi, I’m not going to go into detail because that’s down to us inside, but whatever we changed, suddenly the car came back to life.
“I was half a second away from where I should be on Friday, and then on Saturday morning we performed the way we should. Great Q3, finished seventh in the race, which is what we needed for the whole season.”
While Ocon’s 2025 season with Haas may have gone worse than expected, both he and the team are still very committed to do their best this year and put 2025 behind. Komatsu expects more from the Frenchman stepping into the 2026. Ocon mentioned the same saying:
“So, we are working all together, always trying to do the best. There are things that we missed as a team, overall, and that we should have done better. I’m expecting that we all do that this year and we put, obviously, last year behind.”
Haas have impressed people during the Barcelona shakedown by turning around reliability woes, and fared well during the Bahrain tests as well. With the second phase of testing just around the corner, Haas will be looking to capitalise as much as they can on it. Ocon and Haas must deliver in 2026 to secure their 2027 partnership.
