Haas started the 2026 Formula 1 season with a promising performance, standing out as the ‘best of the rest’ at the Australian GP. Oliver Bearman finished seventh, while Esteban Ocon finished 11th, reflecting contrasts in the team’s first race with the new regulations.
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Bearman was pleased with the result in Melbourne: “It was a good race. The first lap wasn’t the best, but after that we had excellent pace and made some overtakes. I’m very happy, as it was a strong performance from the team today. It’s a special feeling to start with these new rules like this. It was a great result for the team, being the best outside the top four teams. We took advantage of some retirements ahead of us, but either way, we scored points, and we’ll take every point. I’m proud of this team, finishing in P7 shows and validates all their effort,” said the young driver.
Ocon, on the other hand, highlighted some difficulties: “It was a disappointing race, as we should have scored points after the great start and the positions gained. After that, the pace wasn’t there and we were struggling with a lot of rear instability. It was frustrating, as I think the car could have done more. We still need to resolve this, but we learned a lot this weekend, so let’s see how it goes in the next race. I’m happy for the team, as we managed to score points in Melbourne after a lot of work during the pre-season period,” he added.
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Ayao Komatsu, team principal, praised the team’s work and highlighted the challenge of the new season: “First of all, congratulations to everyone. This journey has been extremely challenging, not just in the last few months, but throughout the entire development phase, as we worked in parallel on the VF-25 and VF-26 cars, something that wasn’t done by all teams. After the qualifying session, we had mixed emotions, as it was a solid result, but we could have done better. Today we focused on the basics, ran our own race, made the right decisions at the right time and the pit stop crew delivered. Managing energy was a completely new challenge, and I believe we handled it in the best way possible, learning with every lap. Finishing in P7, just behind the top four teams, is unbelievable and I am very proud of everyone. We have a big learning curve in the upcoming races, but we couldn’t have started the year in a better way,” Komatsu added.
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