Esteban Ocon and Haas fall back into their old ways: “It's a flashback to last year”

After finishing just outside the points in Melbourne, Esteban Ocon expressed great frustration as the season opener reminded him of Haas’ disastrous start to 2025

The positive atmosphere surrounding Haas after winter testing quickly faded by the end of the first grand prix of the Formula 1 season. Although the results were not catastrophic – 11th place for Esteban Ocon and even seventh for Oliver Bearman, albeit with five retirements including two cars from top teams – the mood within the American team remains tense.

For Ocon, frustration above all dominates. The Frenchman, already struggling during qualifying, described the race as “disappointing,” even though it had started well. From 13th on the grid, he made a very strong start to move into the top 10, and the timing of the first virtual safety car also worked in his favour.

But the driver was quickly confronted with the “shocking” behaviour of his car, which he says was very difficult to control. Ocon thus found himself reliving the problems Haas faced at the beginning of the 2025 season, when major technical issues with the car heavily penalised the team.

“The verdict is a disappointing race on our side really,” Ocon lamented. “Especially after the getaway that we got off the line. We've gained a huge amount of places, we were on for a very decent race.

“We boxed under the VSC, which was very positive. Everything was looking good until you just saw the lap time that we were delivering. It was shocking.

Esteban Ocon a perdu beaucoup de temps à batailler contre Pierre Gasly et Gabriel Bortoleto pendant la course.

Esteban Ocon lost a lot of time battling with Pierre Gasly and Gabriel Bortoleto during the race.

Photo by: Alastair Staley/LAT Images via Getty Images

“We were oversteering everywhere on all the entry phases. We damaged the tyres very early on with that. A lot of degradation. It's a flashback to last year when it was not working well at all. We have two very different cars. Myself and Oli with two very different issues once again. It starts to be frustrating.

“It's really frustrating because you take the car that has understeering stability in that race and I had the opposite. In quali you can make it work, in the race with the degradation you can't. It's just common sense.”

The Frenchman added: “I don't know if it broke. I don't know if it was repaired correctly. I don't know if something else broke. But for sure, it was not a good car to drive.”

Esteban Ocon eventually lost his temper

On top of that, energy management proved to be a real headache for Ocon– as it was for the entire field, for that matter. His battles with Gabriel Bortoleto and Pierre Gasly slowed him down significantly, particularly because the “overtake” mode created a yo-yo effect that meant the advantage kept exchanging between passing drivers.

Now, Ocon hopes that all the data gathered on battery management won’t have to be relearned at every new circuit, given how complex everything is to manage on track.