Esteban Ocon not surprised Ayao Komatsu is disappointed with him

Ocon's maiden season with Haas, the 2025 Formula 1 season, was underwhelming, as the veteran driver, now entering his tenth season in the sport, was outperformed on all fronts by a rookie teammate in the form of Ollie Bearman.

Komatsu, however, was somehow diplomatic with his assessment, claiming the team shouldered part of the responsibility for the Frenchman's struggles, a point the latter made sure to point out when responding to the criticism.

Speaking to the media over the course of the Bahrain preseason test, Ocon said: “It was not really a surprise to see Ayao's comments.

“We talked a lot during the winter, and obviously, it's been an up-and-down season for the whole team. It hasn't been very straightforward. But, when you read the whole article, you can see that the team has taken responsibility as well—Ayao said it was 50-50."

Explaining his issues further, Ocon said: “I said it many times last year; for 12, 13, 14 races, I had this issue of front-locking, this issue of instability. This is something that was very different on the other side of the garage.

“It's not a matter of confidence or just not managing to drive the kind of driving style. It was similar pressure on the brakes, similar condition across the two cars—locking for me, not on the other side," he revealed.

The 29-year-old said that he and the team made a breakthrough in the final race of the 2025 F1 season, which is probably a bit too late, especially as the car is now totally different under the new regulations.

“That was the case until Friday in Abu Dhabi,” Ocon said. “Whatever we changed in Abu Dhabi, I'm not going to go into detail because that's down to us inside, but whatever we changed, suddenly the car came back to life.

“I was half a second away from where I should be on Friday, and then on Saturday morning we performed the way we should. Great Q3, finished seventh in the race, which is what we needed for the whole season.

“So, we are working all together, always trying to do the best. There are things that we missed as a team, overall, and that we should have done better.

"I'm expecting that we all do that this year and we put, obviously, last year behind," the winner of the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix concluded.