Haas boss Ayao Komatsu has stated that he holds no concerns over the multiple clashes that 2025 signing Esteban Ocon has sustained with Formula 1 team-mates.
Ocon has garnered a reputation as being an uncompromising wheel-to-wheel racer since his arrival in F1 and that has extended to his approach against the sister car.
The Frenchman got entangled in numerous incidents with the more experienced Sergio Perez at Force India in 2017, prompting the side to intervene with team orders.
Fernando Alonso became the next to critique Ocon’s antics as their relationship became strained due to several run-ins in their final season together at Alpine in 2022.
Ocon, who has also collided with current team-mate Pierre Gasly, will depart Alpine once this campaign concludes and has penned a multi-term deal to move to Haas.
There have been question marks over whether signing someone with Ocon’s negative track record with F1 team-mates could be a hindrance to rookie Oliver Bearman.
But Komatsu has quashed such doubts as he believes that cultivating a transparent environment will serve to stop tension between the drivers undermining the team.
“Honestly, I think lots of it comes down to transparency, trust, and then clear clarity of rule of engagement,” he explained when asked about Ocon’s incidents.
“I think the problem happens when there’s certain trust broken between team and driver as well.
“Then of course, not in my current position, but I’ve been doing this Formula 1 for a reasonably long time.
“And then in my various positions, I have race engineer, chief race engineer, director of engineering, or current position team principal.
“My experience is as long as I approach them with transparency, no personal agenda, clear team agenda about how we need to go for this race weekend, this year, what’s the objective, what’s the rule of engagement, as long as that’s clarified in advance, as long as the communication’s totally transparent, then the trust is there.
“Then when the trust is there, I haven’t actually encountered any issues that got out of hand. So I’m not worried personally.
“If I was worried, I wouldn’t have chosen this combination because it’s my responsibility that we have two drivers who works for the team, for the best interest of the team.
“I have no doubt that both Esteban and Oli [Oliver Bearman] will deliver that.”
Ocon’s latest run-in arrived at the Monaco Grand Prix as an ambitious lunge on team-mate Gasly saw him almost take both cars out of the running in points positions.
Alpine Team Principal Bruno Famin was incensed with Ocon’s conduct and comments to French television even hinted that his driver could be placed on the sidelines.
Komatsu has divulged that the episode was something that he discussed with Ocon, but it was not a big enough matter to dissuade Haas from pursuing his services.
“Of course, we had to consider it,” he said. “It’s not like it’s gone unnoticed.
“Of course, it’s a pretty major incident. So I had a conversation with him. So I still made that decision.”
Discussion about this post