Haas to clarify Ocon and Bearman “rules of engagement” before 2025 F1 season

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu will clarify “rules of engagement” for new drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman to follow in the 2025 Formula 1 season.

The American squad has a history of flashpoints between team-mates – with former drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean colliding several times in 2019, while Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin regularly tried to occupy the same pieces of racetrack in 2021.

These incidents occurred on the watch of former team boss Guenther Steiner, with Komatsu chief race engineer until his elevation to team boss at the start of last season, when Haas ran Nico Hulkenberg alongside Magnussen for the second year in succession.

That duo only had one really contentious moment during the 2024 campaign – when Hulkenberg was unexpectedly undercut by Magnussen after suffering a slightly slow pitstop at the Austrian GP and they subsequently duked it out on track.

But, given Ocon has a considerable checkered history of incidents with his F1 team-mates – from his days racing Sergio Perez at Force India, through to his clashes with Fernando Alonso and then Pierre Gasly at Alpine – questions have already been raised about what might happen in his new relationship with rookie Bearman.

When asked if he would be doing anything different in terms of establishing clear racing rules at Haas this year or if he was choosing to see how things develop, Komatsu, who pushed hard to secure Ocon’s services in 2025, replied: “No – rules of engagement has to be totally clear.

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“From day one. So, that will be clarified before the first race.

“I don't expect any team-mate contacts, DNFs, because of that.

“But it's good, you have to race hard. Look at last year – Kevin is a hard racer and then Kevin and Nico, the closest we came to an issue, which didn't become an issue, was Austria, right?

“But that's partly because we operated in a not perfect manner in terms of pitstop timing. We didn't help ourselves.

“So, as a team, we shouldn't be creating those messes. But, also, with the understanding of each other as team-mates, the rules of engagement would be perfectly clear.”

Komatsu also said he was not looking back to the “completely different era and dynamics and drivers” of the Mazepin-Schumacher Haas line-up in 2021 when it comes to setting out how he wants his squad’s new drivers to operate in 2025.

“No,” he said. “You look at how we operated last year and then how we can improve as a team, what we did good last year, what we could have improved last year, and then take that learning for this year.

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, Mark Slade, Race Engineer, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“So, I don't look that far back to 2021. [And] with Esteban, with Ollie, these are two very, very good drivers.

“They both got a lot more to prove, yeah… But it's funny about Ollie being a rookie, I don't treat him as a rookie.

“He can drive a lot, with these young engineers as well, [they will] grow together.

“We don't treat him as a rookie in the sense that we pay lots of attention to what he has to say, because of course he's got good experience in Ferrari's education [and] simulator.

“And he's been driving our car – VF-23 and VF-24. Every time he gets in the car, his feedback's been excellent. The approach has been excellent, speed has been great.

“You saw in Baku and Interlagos [where Bearman raced in place of Magnussen last year], both qualifying sessions he outqualified Nico who was our reference, right? I think we got a very good combination [with Ocon]. Really looking forward to it.”