Haas drivers had mixed feelings after the qualifying session for the Formula 1 Hungarian GP. While Esteban Ocon celebrated the car’s consistency and 15th place on the starting grid, Oliver Bearman left Budapest frustrated with the car’s behavior and elimination in Q1.
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This performance reinforced a scenario already observed within the team, as there are signs of progress on one side of the garage, but significant difficulties persist on the other. Haas boss, Ayao Komatsu, acknowledged that the team still needs to understand recurring problems related to the car’s balance.
Bearman stated that he has been facing difficulties since returning to the cockpit in FP2. According to the Briton, the car exhibited unpredictable behavior throughout the weekend, compromising his confidence and erasing the positive feeling left by the previous round.
“To be honest, I feel like I’ve just been trying to stay on track all weekend since I got back in the car in FP2. It’s been a constant struggle,” he said. “The balance has been really unpredictable and it’s disappointing, because all the progress we felt we made in Spa seems to have disappeared. I’ve had a lot of difficulty gaining confidence with this car, and that was evident in today’s result,” he stated, after finishing P17.
On the other side of the garage, Ocon adopted a more optimistic tone. The Frenchman highlighted that Haas finally managed to complete a weekend without unusual straight-line speed or downforce issues, allowing for continuous development work since FP1.
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“I am very pleased with the work we did this weekend. We didn’t have any strange issues with straight-line speed, rear or front downforce, something we’ve seen in the past. The car remained consistent. We were able to build performance since FP1 and extract the maximum from the available package. There was nothing more we could do in terms of position,” he said.
Komatsu assessed that the 15th and 17th place results are not ideal, but highlighted the importance of Ocon’s consistency throughout all sessions. For the team principal, the Frenchman extracted everything the car could offer in Q1 and Q2, demonstrating that the team’s main mission is to increase the performance of the current package.
Regarding Bearman, the Haas boss stated that the team is still looking for answers to the problems faced by the young driver: “We all know what Ollie is capable of. It’s the car that’s preventing him from reaching the limit,” Komatsu concluded. The team principal added that the team will continue working on the car’s balance before Sunday’s race, especially given the forecast of track temperatures close to 50 degrees, also betting on different tire strategies to try and move up the field.
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