Esteban Ocon frustrated after his elimination in SQ2 in Shanghai: "We still have quite a few problems"

The sprint qualifying session in Shanghai was decided by extremely small margins when it came to determining the ten drivers who qualified for SQ3. In this very close competition, Esteban Ocon He narrowly missed out on reaching the final part of the session. Just 19 thousandths of a second behind his compatriot Isack Hadjar, who qualified tenth and was the last driver to qualify for SQ3, the Frenchman finished twelfth. He also found himself behind Nico Hulkenberg, eleventh, just 15 thousandths of a second off a pass in the final part of the sprint qualifying.

Despite the extremely small gap, Esteban Ocon told Canal + that the session reflected the difficulties encountered by the car since the start of the weekend. "Difficult, I think that's the word. Since the first free practice session, I think we've taken a small step in the right direction, but we still have quite a few problems with the car, and that's what we need to try and get working." The pilot Haas It notably describes complicated behavior in certain key phases of piloting. "A lot of instability on corner entry, a lot of wheel lock-up at the end of braking. These are problems we've already discussed extensively. We know it's possible to fix them, now we just need it to happen."

Better energy management than in Melbourne

Beyond chassis behavior, energy management is also a crucial element at the Shanghai circuit, given the new technical regulations introduced this season. On this point, the driver from Normandy believes the team handled this aspect quite well during sprint qualifying. "I think it was okay, it was managed quite well." He points out, however, that a detail may have cost him in his last fast lap, but it had no direct connection to the battery. "It's true that I was all alone on that last lap, so I lost a lot of ground on the straights without a tow. In any case, on the best lap I managed, it was pretty well handled."

For Esteban Ocon and Haas, this result confirms the progress made, particularly with Oliver Bearman's ninth-place finish in Q3. Even though the final gap remains extremely small, the Frenchman knows that the car's overall performance still needs improvement to convert these opportunities into qualifying and the final phase. The rest of the weekend in Shanghai will offer further opportunities for progress, with the sprint race followed by qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix. For Haas, the objective will be to make the most of the data collected to correct the instability issues mentioned by their driver before the sprint race, which will take place on Saturday at 4:00 AM Paris time, and qualifying for the Grand Prix that will follow at 8:00 AM.

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