Esteban Ocon finished P15 in the F1 US GP following a disappointing weekend for the Haas driver at COTA. He got knocked out in SQ1 and Q1, while Ollie Bearman made Q3 in Grand Prix qualifying. The Brit finished 9th in the race.
Starting on hards from P17 on the grid, the French driver passed Colapinto and Bortoleto on the opening lap. However, the hard tyre was ultimately the worst around COTA. Stroll, the Brazilian and the Argentine all passed him on softer tyres.
After pitting on lap 24 to switch to mediums, he did a 31-lap stint on those. While he was overtaken by Antonelli and Albon later, Ocon did finish ahead of Colapinto, Bortoleto and Gasly in the F1 US GP.
Esteban Ocon says Hadjar, Albon and himself the guinea pigs for everyone else in F1 US GP
Speaking afterwards in the print media zone, the 2021 Hungarian GP winner discussed how the hard tyre did not work and gave valuable info to other teams to avoid it.
“Yeah, I think we just gave the pure info, myself, Alex [Albon and Isack [Hadjar], for the whole field really, to not use that hard. I think it was the tyre that was not working for this track.
“I had a good start, gained three or four positions, it was pretty good after Turn 1, but unfortunately I lost it all after three laps. I had no pace, I was sliding a lot, it was extremely difficult out there.
“And when we boxed into the medium 25 laps later, the pace was decent. It was the same as most people that we were fighting ahead, but I couldn’t recover after what we lost, so we didn’t get it right this race.”
Regarding the hard tyre call and whether it was a surprise that it was so bad, Ocon gave a short and sharp answer, suggesting he was somewhat annoyed by the decision.
“Yeah, there are things that we need to review on that.”
The struggles for Esteban Ocon in the F1 US GP
Haas brought a floor update to the F1 US GP. Ollie Bearman finished P8 on the road in the Sprint, but he was awarded a penalty for gaining an advantage by passing/keeping position against Kimi Antonelli off the track. Nonetheless the 20-year-old got two points on Sunday.
For Esteban Ocon, his big struggles continued. He has only made it out of Q1 once in the last six rounds. His struggles with the VF-25 are pretty clear at present.
Over the weekend at COTA, however, Ocon explained different issues they faced. The big struggles came in Sector 1 through the sweeping esses. Big compromises had to be made on aero balance.
“Yeah, I think it’s great for the team that we got two points out of this weekend.
“I think it’s great that the team has brought an update, but the whole weekend has been very difficult for me in the high-speed section. Couldn’t really turn the car, had to drop massively the aero balance.
“So this is what we need to try and investigate and understand for the next event.”
