Ocon praises Haas’ work this season
The Alpine driver, who will be joining the American team next season, applauds Haas's ability to compete in F1 despite a much smaller team in terms of numbers than its rivals, and a limited budget that allows few improvements to be made to its single-seater.
As is often the case in Formula 1, some drivers do not hesitate to praise the merits of their future team. Esteban Ocon, who will leave Alpine after four seasons, is no exception. The Norman recently praised the performances of Haas, which he will join in 2025, highlighting the American team’s ability to achieve good results despite limited resources.
A team with modest but effective means.
Since entering F1 in 2016, with Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez, Haas quickly faced its budgetary and personnel constraints. With seasons often marked by limited car development and cost-cutting measures such as reducing personnel on the pit wall, the American team had to show ingenuity to remain competitive.
Despite these challenges, Haas managed to secure a fifth place in the constructors’ championship in 2018, a remarkable performance for a team of this size. After difficult years where the future of the team seemed uncertain, Haas has regained a good level of competitiveness this season, currently ranking seventh with 27 points, just four units behind Racing Bulls. This return to form has been one of the deciding factors for Esteban Ocon in choosing to join the American team in 2025.
Ocon seduced by Haas’ resilience
Building on his experience with teams of various sizes, Ocon expressed his admiration for the work done by Haas despite its limited resources. “There are about three hundred employees working at the moment, but they are outperforming teams with two, three, four times their size, which is remarkable,” he told RacingNews365. This efficiency has won over the Frenchman, who sees Haas as a promising project for the future.
The winner of the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix also emphasized that his decision to leave Alpine was motivated by the French team’s stagnation, which has been struggling to solve certain persistent technical problems for several years.
We have not yet reached this stage of technical development and improvement of a top team and we are facing the same problems that we already had three years ago with the current car which is not possible in Formula 1, lamented Ocon, adding that the frustration within the team was palpable this season.
« It’s true, this season has been frustrating. It’s no secret, nobody is happy within the team about our situation and there hasn’t been enough improvement on certain issues, on certain technical problems, as we had managed to do years ago.
Ocon still hopes to finish the season with Alpine on a good note before starting this new chapter in his career with Haas. The American team, although modest in terms of budget and personnel, has demonstrated its ability to compete with better-funded teams, which perfectly aligns with the ambitions of the French driver. For Ocon, this change represents not only a new opportunity but also a significant challenge to continue progressing in his F1 career.
