Story byMotorsport photoEd HardySun, February 15, 2026 at 11:50 AM UTC·3 min readEsteban Ocon has responded to the frank assessment of his 2025 Formula 1 campaign by Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu - saying he wasn’t surprised to hear it. Komatsu said last week that “we expected more” from the grand prix winner in his debut season with the American outfit, claiming “nobody’s satisfied with Esteban’s sporting result” in 2025. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat came after Ocon finished 15th in the championship with 38 points, three points shy of rookie team-mate Oliver Bearman, who also outqualified the veteran (technical issues excluded) 17-11. Read Also: “We expected more” from Esteban Ocon – Haas Those statistics were no fluke given Ocon’s performances were inconsistent throughout the year, while Bearman’s results consistently ramped up with fourth in Mexico being the highlight. So Ocon accepted Komatsu’s review, especially because his boss didn’t lay all the blame at his door, adding Haas failed to provide a car that the 29-year-old was comfortable with. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It was not really a surprise to see Ayao's comments,” said Ocon during this week’s Bahrain pre-season test for 2026.“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.”Ayao Komatsu, Haas F1 TeamAyao Komatsu, Haas F1 TeamPart of the reason for Ocon’s underwhelming campaign was him being unhappy with how the VF-25 behaved, particularly under braking, and he thinks those issues were specific to him. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I said it many times last year for 12, 13, 14 races, I had this issue of front-locking, this issue of instability,” he added.
