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Ocon puzzled by his lack of pace against Bearman: "Five tenths a lap is quite significant"

Esteban Ocon had an anonymous weekend at Suzuka: eliminated in Q1 and forced to race at the back of the pack, the Frenchman is questioning his lack of performance compared to his teammate, Oliver Bearman.

Published 07/04/2025 à 06:15

Dorian Grangier

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Ocon puzzled by his lack of pace against Bearman: "Five tenths a lap is quite significant"

© Eric Alonso / DPPI

Two weeks after the Chinese Grand Prix and the incredible 5th place achieved by the Norman, Esteban Ocon hoped to confirm this return to grace this weekend at Suzuka, on a circuit he loves. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, nothing went as hoped on his side of the garage Haas. Although equipped with the same upgrades as his teammate Oliver Bearman, with a new floor that the American team rushed to install on the VF-25, the Evreux driver was never in the running this weekend against the Briton.

Eliminated in Q1 while the English rookie reached Q3, Esteban Ocon was unable to recover in a monotonous race, where overtaking opportunities were very rare. Oliver Bearman, for his part, managed to maintain his 10th place and pick up a point. In the race, the former driver Alpine attempted an offbeat strategy by starting on hard tires, hoping that a safety car would restart the race and give him an opportunity to come back. In vain. "It didn't pay off, but hey, we had nothing to lose by coming so far back, Esteban Ocon told Canal+ after the Japanese Grand PrixWe were expecting a Safety Car at one point in this race, which didn't happen. We finished where we started and it would have been difficult to come back anyway. Without a Safety Car, it wasn't the best strategy, but hey, that's how it is.

Ocon hopes for a 'transfer' of performance

Already doubtful on Saturday after qualifying about his lack of pace compared to his young teammate, Esteban Ocon didn't really have any answers this Sunday during the race. While he was pleased to see Oliver Bearman bring home points for Haas, he remains perplexed by the performance gap between the two cars this weekend at Suzuka. “The important thing is that this weekend the team managed to make some upgrades that worked on Ollie’s [Bearman] car, it’s great that he managed to score a point this weekend. We just need to transfer that to my car and find that performance that we’ve already seen, said the Frenchman. It's clear that we'll have more data to look at. We were on a different strategy but the gap is still there. There are still four to five tenths per lap so it's still quite significant." Hopefully Esteban Ocon and Haas will find a solution to these problems next weekend in Bahrain.

ALSO READ > A missed stop and a still blank counter for Gasly and Alpine in Suzuka

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Dorian Grangier

A young journalist nostalgic for the motorsport of yesteryear. Raised on the exploits of Sébastien Loeb and Fernando Alonso.

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2 Comment (s)

V

vincent moyet

07/04/2025 at 11:41 a.m.

What also turns this kind of race into a soporific procession is the excessive reliability of the cars. There are no retirements to be expected for twists and turns or to gain a few places. In 2022, there were many more mechanical failures because the regulations were new. We can therefore hope for a little more uncertainty, at least next year, with the new engines.

H

Hilton Leon

07/04/2025 at 11:39 a.m.

The problem is the driver, not the car.

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