{"id":38913,"date":"2026-02-05T14:52:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=38913"},"modified":"2026-02-05T15:02:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:02:49","slug":"komatsu-nobody-is-satisfied-with-ocons-first-year-at-haas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2026\/02\/05\/komatsu-nobody-is-satisfied-with-ocons-first-year-at-haas\/","title":{"rendered":"Komatsu: “Nobody is satisfied” with Ocon’s first year at Haas"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the 2024 driver market began to intensify, Esteban Ocon was among the first to make a move. The Frenchman signed a multi-year deal with Ayao Komatsu’s Haas<\/a>, an agreement that came as his relationship with Alpine deteriorated.<\/p>\n

Alongside rookie Oliver Bearman, the expectation was that Ocon<\/a> would lead Haas in 2025. It was therefore a surprise when Bearman outscored his more experienced teammate – whilst also securing a winning head-to-head in qualifying and race.<\/p>\n

With the 2026 season approaching, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has not sugar-coated the Frenchman’s performance last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Ayao Komatsu during day one of F1 Testing at Circuit de Catalunya on January 26, 2026 in Montmelo, Spain. (Photo by Guido De Bortoli\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Komatsu demands more from Ocon<\/h2>\n

Overall, Haas were competitive in 2025. They finished the year in 8th place, a reasonable constructors result amidst a very strong midfield.<\/p>\n

Haas were unlucky not to finish higher, with fine margins deciding the midfield scrap. One of their biggest limiting factors was the frequent discrepancies between their drivers.<\/p>\n

At various points in the season, Bearman<\/a> and Ocon would have radically different qualifying results. Whilst one driver would be in Q3, the other would often find themselves eliminated in Q1.<\/p>\n

This prevented Haas from maximising the VF-25’s potential, even if upgrades meant their consistency improved later in the season.<\/p>\n

More specifically, it was Oliver Bearman that became more dependable as 2025 progressed. Both on Saturdays and Sundays, the British driver was regularly in the top 10.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ocon was finding things more tricky. After Friday Practice in Abu Dhabi, Ocon even remarked “I don’t seem to be knowing how to drive at all.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Although he recovered impressively to finish the race in 7th, this quote speaks to Ocon’s struggles with his machinery. Looking ahead to 2026, Haas are working to ensure he feels more comfortable.<\/p>\n

However, Ayao Komatsu also emphasises<\/a> that he expects more from his veteran driver:<\/p>\n

“If you look purely at a sporting result, without going into details, for sure nobody is satisfied with Esteban\u2019s sporting result last year.<\/em><\/p>\n

“He\u2019s a teammate against a rookie. Yes, an amazing rookie. But nonetheless, he\u2019s got 10 years of F1 under his belt – he\u2019s a race winner, he\u2019s a podium finisher. So we expected more from him. <\/em>(cont. on next page)<\/p>\n

\"\"
Esteban Ocon at the 2026 Barcelona Shakedown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

“Obviously it\u2019s not totally his fault. It\u2019s 50\/50 \u2013 sometimes it\u2019s that as a team we couldn\u2019t give him the car that he was comfortable, especially in Qualifying. And sometimes that was exaggerated much more than others.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Look at Baku \u2013 he really wasn\u2019t happy with the braking performance, and he was miles off in the Qualifying pace. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Yes, Baku happened to be one of Ollie\u2019s strongest circuits, but we didn\u2019t expect Esteban to be so far off.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But again, there\u2019s not one reason. I\u2019s not just the driver, it\u2019s not just the team, and each instance is different. There\u2019s no common underlining factor, but it\u2019s just the process, how we work together to get to the bottom of it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

A crucial year for Ocon<\/h4>\n

Like most drivers, Esteban Ocon enters this year on an expiring deal. This presents a combination of opportunity and uncertainty.<\/p>\n

If Ocon can re-establish himself as the reference at Haas, it will boost his market value. At a time when multiple seats could become available, this scenario could be positive for the Frenchman.<\/p>\n

On the opposite side of the coin, the #31 driver cannot afford to have a poor season. If Bearman outperforms him once more, it will likely further devalue Ocon’s weight in the market.<\/p>\n

Not only will this impact his standing at Haas, but also at other teams as they make driver decisions.<\/p>\n

In the early months of 2024, LWOS covered Haas and Audi’s interest in Yuki Tsunoda.<\/a> Indeed, the US team were considering signing Tsunoda for 2025 – before Red Bull activated their option on his contract, keeping him at VCARB and preventing a move.<\/p>\n

Still, it should be noted that Ocon was not necessarily the clear first choice for Haas prior to last season. Ayao Komatsu has made no secret that he also wanted to keep Hulkenberg, and only looked at alternatives when the 38-year-old committed to Audi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Therefore, with Tsunoda set to be one of many drivers available this year, it is essential that Ocon performs at a high level.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Guido De Bortoli\/LAT Images (Haas F1 Team Media Gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the 2024 driver market began to intensify, Esteban Ocon was among the first to make a move. The Frenchman signed a multi-year deal with Ayao Komatsu’s Haas, an agreement that came as his relationship with Alpine deteriorated. Alongside rookie Oliver Bearman, the expectation was that Ocon would lead Haas in 2025. It was therefore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":38916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2224,20,2582,301],"class_list":["post-38913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-ayao-komatsu","tag-esteban-ocon","tag-f1-2026-season","tag-haas-f1-team"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38913"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38923,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38913\/revisions\/38923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}