Why Ocon believes Haas F1 team is 'healthier' than Alpine

“We haven't always been listened to. And this is why some of the issues still remain after five years in this team."

This is how Esteban Ocon assessed his time within the Alpine squad right before Formula 1’s 2024 summer break, which came before he had even departed the Enstone-based outfit.

At the time, Ocon had just signed with Haas for 2025; he was already pledging to create a "circle" of communication in order to create an efficient working environment – in contrast to Alpine, where the problems that he reported worsened instead of being fixed, he lamented.

One year later and 14 grands prix into his first season with Haas, Ocon’s assessment is clear: he has found exactly the team he was looking for.

"Compared to my previous experience, it's a healthy environment," the former Alpine driver told Autosport. "As I said, no one's hiding behind anything. If we don't do something right, we talk about it and hope not to do it again. And we talk about it straight away at the end of the race.

"And that's good, because if you don't talk about it – which is what I've experienced before – then you [are] going to do it again. That's the main thing.

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team, with his race engineer Laura Mueller

Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images

"This team is incredibly motivated. It can sound crazy, but I've seen some people not motivated in the past, even working in the Formula 1 paddock. That's probably the worst thing.

"As a driver like me – who puts his heart and sweat into the work, to do everything perfect before I get to the track – when you turn up and you see somebody looking at his check-in on Monday, it's quite tough. And I've seen that in the past.

"Now, I'm not going to say everything's perfect. There are things that we need to improve, obviously. But, we have a very solid base to work on since I joined, and we are moving forward. And I'm glad with the way it's going."

Ocon was impressed with Haas right from the start, as the team swiftly redesigned its steering wheel according to his personal preferences.

“Designing a steering wheel with a double clutch, it took them a month, which was ridiculous," the Frenchman enthused. “I was incredibly surprised with that, and I've never seen any other team do that, even the big ones that I worked with. Normally it takes a lot of time for that to come.

"We were claimed to be the smallest team. We are. But, you know, some of these reactions are top class."

Haas also bounced back after a poor Australian Grand Prix performance, with both cars unstable at high speed; Ocon and team-mate Oliver Bearman qualified and finished at the bottom of the timesheets in Melbourne, which team boss Ayao Komatsu called a "bomb" after the outfit finished seventh in the 2024 constructors’ championship.

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Five months later, Haas may be just ninth in the standings, but it has collected a whopping 35 points – 2.50 points per grand prix, its second-best average over 10 F1 seasons.

"I was talking to Ayao about many things in the team and I was honestly super impressed about the reaction that they got after that race," Ocon said. "No one was hiding. Everyone came as one, all together as a real team, to try and fix some of the issues that we were having in that first week in Australia.

"And then we arrived in China and we managed to turn things around completely. This is no luck. This is the atmosphere that there is inside this team. There is no hiding behind or pointing to one person."

However, there remains much room for improvement if Haas is to become a frontrunner, with Ocon pinning his hopes on the new technical rules coming into force for the 2026 campaign.

"We just need a faster platform," he insisted. "Obviously, we'll see what next year brings. And we need to finish this year on a high, also. But if we have a platform to fight higher up, we will be ready to fight the bigger guys, 100%. We just need to have something decent to work on the racetrack, and then we'll take care of it."