Esteban Ocon was left “disappointed” after dropping points with his 11th place finish at the Spanish Grand Prix, the closest he has come to scoring points since Monaco.
However, the American team took the silver lining from their disappointment as their latest series of improvements appear to be paying off. The team’s last big parts package was in Canada and did not have the desired effect, as a good start to the season was exhausted by many Q1 starts and fights with players like williams and Aston Martin.
But Haas brought updates to Ollie Bearman’s car at Zandvoort, with Ocon get the aero package at Monza. There, the characteristics of the track nullified part of the advantage, but at Madring it was fully demonstrated.
“We are all disappointed, I think we could have achieved a lot more, we deserved to be in the points today,” Ocon said after the race. “The plan was to have both Audis at the start and we did it, we got them both off the line and between turns 1 and 2. I got Gabi. [Bortoleto] first the launch and then Nico [Hulkenberg] into turn 2. That was very good.
“We knew it would be difficult to contain them. But we were ahead until the stop, at the stop we lost position. We need to see what I could have done better, if I could have stopped in a slightly better position or what happened, as I think it was a decent stop, so they must have made a very, very good one.”
“But we gave it our all. I’m proud of everyone, because we come from a long history.” [run] where we are in Q1, below P15. Now we are fighting for the points, so it is quite positive and encouraging for the rest of the races.”
Ocon qualified 13th in Madrid with his best performance one lap from Japan. This put him in full fight with the two Audis, although Hulkenberg He was able to get ahead again in the pit stop period when both entered under the VSC.
Audi is the team chasing Haas in the Constructors Championshipwith the American team only four points ahead thanks to Hulkenberg’s tenth place finish in Madrid. But although his lead was reduced, Ocon was still confident in the progress Haas had made.
“Since we received the update, obviously, we are seeing when the car is healthy and we don’t have the inconsistency, we can perform at a decent level and this is what we have to continue doing,” he added.
Team boss Ayao Komatsu agreed with his driver, calling it a “really good” sign that everyone is so disappointed with P11, a position that seemed unthinkable before the summer break.
“The car was working very well, the drivers drove well, the on-track and remote operations were really good. I think today we did the best we could. We lost the pit stop against Audi, but I don’t think it was our team’s fault, it’s really the equipment that we need to improve to give them a better chance,” he explained.
“Honestly, I’m very happy, it was a great team effort and the consistency of the car was there, no problems like we’ve had before.”
Even Bearman was able to find some positives, despite falling down the order after a pit stop to finish 16th. He opted to incorporate some new power unit components after not being able to participate in qualifying following his strong accident in FP3 on Saturday.
“The car was strong, as long as it had clean air, it was at the same pace as our competition. Unfortunately, it was very rare for it to have that, it was stuck in traffic,” he added.
“I’m positive again, we needed a clean day after what happened yesterday. In that sense we had it to be able to turn the page, learn everything we can from yesterday, but turn the page, restart and come back stronger in Baku.”