Esteban Ocon has already managed to seduce his boss at Haas

The season had started in the worst possible way for Haas in Australia. The American team had not scored any points and, above all, had displayed a worrying pace, quite clearly behind the rest of the field. To top it all off, Oliver Bearman had endured a nightmare weekend, crashing twice, which prevented him from driving in FP2 and qualifying. But while he could have collapsed morally, the protégé of Ferrari raised his head to sign a more positive weekend in China (8th) and confirm the hopes placed in him by his boss, Ayao Komatsu.

"I'm very impressed. But that's what we already knew. We knew he was capable of it.", greets the Japanese. “Melbourne was a bit of a surprise for us, but we believed in his potential. We had a good conversation in Melbourne, and also before we started driving in Shanghai. We basically told him, ‘Look, you have the talent, you have everything it takes to do well. You just have to do every lap we have planned this weekend.’ And that’s exactly what he did. He progressed step by step, learned with every stint, and Sunday’s performance was incredible. That’s the Ollie we know. Like Kimi (Antonelli), he still has a lot of potential and room to improve, so it’s really nice to work with him.”

Komatsu: "Ocon is someone we can progress with together"

On the other side of the garage, Esteban Ocon also gives satisfaction. The Norman finished 5th in the Chinese Grand Prix, bringing back ten precious points for the Kannapolis (North Carolina) team. The Frenchman fully assumes his role as leader, which he had never occupied before. On the contrary, Esteban Ocon had rather made a specialty of rubbing shoulders with more experienced teammates (Alonso, Ricciardo) or of a level substantially equivalent to his own (Pérez, gasly), but he had never had to lead a team alongside a young rookie.

The number 31 has perfectly entered into his role, to the great delight of his team manager. “Again, I really appreciate his work ethic. We know he’s fast. He’s a sure thing. He finishes races, he’s scored a lot of points, but he’s still very young and very determined to achieve more in Formula 1 » praises Günther Steiner's successor.

“He’s someone you can improve with together. Especially when you have a problem with the car, like in Melbourne, having a driver like him, fully integrated into the team, pushing the engineers—no matter how much time he has to spend with them—he’s really motivated to improve things together. It makes a huge difference for the team. That’s what I expected, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing. I’m very satisfied.”

The Haas duo has already convinced their boss, but the car itself is less convincing: the first free practice sessions in Japan showed Haas cars lagging behind, as in Melbourne. The Americans took a somewhat crazy gamble by bringing a new floor to Suzuka, which had not been tested in a wind tunnel. We'll have to wait until qualifying to see if it improves performance or sends Gene Haas's team back to its old ways.

ALSO READ > Japan – EL2: Four red flags spoil the session, Hadjar 3rd