Ocon Blames Haas Car Lottery for Bearman Comparison

Two identical cars. Two different answers. Esteban Ocon says that, not his driving, is the story of his season.

Esteban Ocon believes his improved Zandvoort weekend supports his long-running claim that inconsistent Haas machinery, rather than driver form, has distorted the comparison with Oliver Bearman this season.

The Frenchman's 2027 seat is under increasing scrutiny, with Leonardo Fornaroli, Rafael Camara, Jack Doohan and even Yuki Tsunoda all linked with the American team.

Why does Ocon think the Haas comparison is unfair?

Because, in his telling, the two VF-26s do not always behave the same way even when they are built to the same specification.

"Ayao, Ollie and myself have spoken about it a lot, and it's been difficult to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from each time, because we could put the same parts on the car and suddenly have one car working and one car not working," he said.

He pointed to Spa and Budapest, where Bearman had the upper hand, as evidence of the same mystery running the other way.

"So it doesn't always add up and it doesn't necessarily make sense."

"There is very clearly a consistency problem that we haven't managed to solve, and we are still working together to identify the problems."

What changed at Zandvoort?

The picture flipped again.

Ocon qualified P15, comfortably ahead of a struggling Bearman, and told France's Auto Hebdo that his car finally did what he asked of it.

"The car was really optimised compared to what we have," he explained.

"It clearly wasn't enough to fight with the cars ahead. We were three-tenths behind Colapinto, and I did a very good lap. I was happy with that."

For Ocon, the telling detail was not the lap time. It was that the unexplained car-to-car difference had returned, simply pointing his way this time.

"We don't understand why, and we see differences with Ollie. This weekend, we're seeing differences that aren't the same as in Hungary."

"It seems like every time we put a car on track, we're flipping a coin and one car will work, but not the other."

How rare is a good Haas weekend?

Rare enough that Ocon can list them.

"Maybe at Silverstone, at Suzuka, but that's it," he said of the times the car felt this comfortable.

"Rediscovering it is really great."

Is Ocon's 2027 seat actually in danger?

Team boss Ayao Komatsu stopped well short of criticising him when asked about the mounting rumours.

"Esteban, when he is happy with the car, you know what he can do," said the Japanese.

"So we need to really just focus on providing them with the best possible car, best set-up adaptation, and get the best out of them."

That is a defence of the driver and an admission about the car in the same breath. If Haas cannot make two cars behave alike, the intra-team scoreboard that decides a 2027 seat is measuring the wrong thing.

The 2026 championship standings will not care about the explanation. That is precisely Ocon's problem.

Related: Komatsu Slams Steiner Claim That Gene Haas Lost Interest

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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