Esteban Ocon revealed that Haas deployed a unique approach in its preparations for the 2026 Formula 1 season, ensuring both he and team-mate Ollie Bearman were focused on 2025.
The Silverstone-based squad perhaps, on paper, suffered a worse season than 2024, when it narrowly missed out on sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship to Alpine.
But the bigger picture will tell that the team scored 21 more points this year, with Ocon and Bearman completing a series of impressive drives between them.
Continuing to be backed by a Ferrari engine and further technical support from Toyota Gazoo Racing, Haas was often able to show impressive race pace.
So much so that on its day, it was able to mix with some of the ‘big boys’, with Bearman going toe-to-toe with Max Verstappen in the Mexico City Grand Prix, finishing fourth.
Ocon explained ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi that both he and the Brit were left to solely focus on the season ahead, rather than worry about 2026.
“As soon as this is finished, we are flying both Ollie and me to Maranello, and we are driving the 2026 car,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“It was very much a team’s decision, not for us to focus on the 2026 stuff. In terms of driving, in terms of driving style, technique and everything.”
Ocon: Komatsu ‘very clear’ on 2025 focus for Haas F1 drivers
Ocon and Bearman were allowed the luxury of pouring their concentration into continuing its impressive 2025 run, at the behest of Team Principal Ayao Komatsu.
“Before this season was finished, Ayao was very clear on that, the Frenchman continued. “He wanted us to focus completely on this season, which is very important for the team.
“We’ve done meetings because we had to, in terms of technicality and some stuff that we had to decide very early on with the team, but the work for us is going to really start post-Abu Dhabi test.”
Ocon was unable to complete no more than four laps in said test due to a technical issue, rendering the test with Bearman at Fiorano, Ferrari’s private Maranello test track, to begin work on next year.
The team will enjoy further support from Toyota as it will enter the new 50-50 hybrid era of F1, with additional excitement of an intra-national rivalry with newbies, and fellow American entrants, Cadillac.
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