Aug.23 (GMM) Esteban Ocon believes his improved Zandvoort weekend supports his long-running claim that inconsistent Haas machinery, rather than simply driver performance, 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 Haas.
But Ocon has repeatedly insisted that the two VF-26s do not always behave consistently, even when fitted with nominally identical parts.
“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 said Bearman’s relative performance at Spa and Budapest underlined the mystery. “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.”
At Zandvoort, the picture flipped again.
Ocon qualified P15 and ahead of Bearman, who struggled much more heavily, and told France’s Auto Hebdo that his own car finally behaved predictably.
“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 most interesting point was that the unexplained car-to-car difference had returned – just in the opposite direction.
“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.”
Ocon says he has rarely felt this comfortable with the Haas all season. “Maybe at Silverstone, at Suzuka, but that’s it.”
“Rediscovering it is really great.”
Team boss Ayao Komatsu also stopped short of criticising Ocon when asked about the mounting 2027 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.”
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