Esteban Ocon has revealed how his experience has been utilised to help Haas move up the Formula 1 grid on a consistent basis, as speculation about his future with the team rumbles on.
The Frenchman, and Team Principal Ayao Komatsu, were forced to address misinterpreted media reports that led to widespread rumours of a major falling out between the two ahead of last month’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Ocon and Komatsu issued a united front in Montreal, and angrily denied the speculation, both dismissing it as “bulls**t”.
The one-time Grand Prix-winner responded by producing a calm and impressive performance in Monaco, navigating the usual chaos the principality brings by moving from 17th on the grid to ninth.
However, over last weekend’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, German publication Auto Motor und Sport reported that Ferrari academy driver and current Formula 2 star Rafael Camara was said to be eyeing a chance of taking Ocon’s seat in the future.
But in an exclusive interview with Motorsport Week at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Ocon exuded an assurance on his future, explaining, when asked how he feels what he can bring to the team, how his experience is used to help Haas, which has consistently performed admirably despite a comparatively low budget to its rivals.
“I feel like my job is really to point exactly where we need to improve, and to really push these points as quickly as possible,” he said. “Because in F1, we’ve divided different departments, and some things are priorities, some things are not. But what we talk about is very important and needs to be fixed quite quickly.
“Ayao is helping a lot on this. Ayao is a person that, when there is something that doesn’t work, we need to come to a conclusion very quickly and help to fix it for the next one.
“There’s a lot of examples since I joined that we managed to fix quickly, but there are still some things that have been there as underlying issues, and that we are working around as they take a lot of resources.
“Some things are priority, but my job is to really show what is the priority and push it forward.”
Esteban Ocon details ‘bigger picture’ Komatsu brings Haas
Komatsu is part of a growing trend of technical and engineering-minded figures within an F1 team who have moved up to the role of Team Principal, along with the likes of Alan Permane, James Vowles and Adrian Newey.
Ocon explained that Komatsu’s experience on that front has been a great benefit for the Banbury-based team, and that how his previous and current roles give everyone involved a “bigger picture” of knowing where to focus.
“I think it’s very positive to have somebody that understands all of what a team needs,” the 29-year-old said. “Because Ayao was working in the team before as chief engineer, so he’s involved in all the conversation as much as he can, and having the bigger picture on where to place your efforts, knowing how much it’s going to bring to the team is very valuable.”
Ocon’s first experiences of F1 came with the Lotus, turned-Renault squad in 2014, where Komatsu was race engineer for Romain Grosjean, whom he then followed to Haas upon its formation in 2016.
Having therefore known Komatsu for over 10 years, Ocon reaffirmed his position in Montreal and was categorically in agreement and when asked if their public rebuttal of the rumours showed great unity within the team and helped him take a step forward.
“Yeah, definitely. It shows the support I got from Ayao,” he said. “Since one of these years, Ayao was the first one to reach me out.
“When we were discussing at first on me and joining the team, he was my first race engineer in F1 back in 2014, which is a long time ago now. And yeah, it’s great to have that kind of support from him.”
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