> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.the-race.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # All the reasons the Ocon-Haas relationship fell apart - URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/all-the-reasons-the-ocon-haas-relationship-fell-apart/ - Published: 2026-09-30T15:58:13.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-30T16:06:53.000Z - Description: There are lots of different views on why the biggest driver move Haas has made turned sour. Here's what actually happened - Author: Ben Anderson - Tags: Formula 1, #esteban-ocon, #haas, #primary_homepage_feature When Esteban Ocon marked his exit from the Haas Formula 1 team with [yet another reference to elements out of his control](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/esteban-ocon-set-for-f1-exit-as-haas-split-announced/), it served as a not-so-subtle hint at a gradual, complex deterioration of this driver-team relationship. Such comments inevitably lead to speculation over what is really behind the decision if not purely a choice based on driver performance. As Ferrari-backed Rafa Camara is the favourite to replace Ocon, some sympathetic to Ocon's cause have inferred that Ferrari's support of its junior driver is shoving Ocon out the door. There have also been some suggestions of Haas prioritising a commercial element. And Ocon has his own detractors too, those who believe he has simply not been good enough after being outscored by team-mate Ollie Bearman over the two years. Haas had a contractual option to retain Ocon for next year and decided not to activate it quite a long time ago, subsequently notifying Ocon just after the summer break that he was unlikely to be kept on. It has been a significant shift since Ocon being so highly coveted by Haas. When Ocon was signed, team boss Ayao Komatsu was faced with a lot of questions about whether it would work, though there could be no doubt about Ocon's pedigree coming in. Not since 10-time podium finisher Romain Grosjean joined for the team's inaugural F1 season in 2016 as Haas employed such a successful driver. He also arrived carrying the label of sometimes being a difficult driver to work with, who had clashed with team-mates multiple times, and joined after being dropped by Alpine before the final race of 2024 and replaced with Jack Doohan. And was known to disagree with his past teams over the extent of perceived car issues he said were holding him back. It's also worth remembering that Mercedes ultimately decided Ocon wasn't quite good enough to warrant replacing Valtteri Bottas in the way George Russell ultimately did. Komatsu was still willing to gamble. It just did not pay off as hoped. ## The tensions that grew Komatsu, who pushed hard to bring Ocon to the team, felt their previous relationship dating back to Komatsu's time as a senior engineer at what's now Alpine during its Lotus era, when Ocon was a member of the Lotus F1 junior team (pictured together in 2014 below) before Mercedes snapped him up, would help smooth things along and prevent any tensions that arose spilling over. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/XPB_712041_HiRes.jpg) In one specific aspect this has been a success: Ocon and team-mate Bearman have maintained a good working relationship throughout Ocon's spell with the team, and even when there have been flashpoints, such as a collision at the 2025 British Grand Prix and another at Spa this year, those moments have been addressed internally and fostered no ill-will between the two drivers. What Komatsu misjudged is how well it would work more broadly. He was fully aware that Ocon had some difficult moments, but put that was down to Alpine handling him poorly as that team was going through frequent turmoil and upheaval during its transition from the Cyril Abiteboul regime Ocon began with, to the Flavio Briatore-led one that ousted him. Haas had to work hard in the early part of 2025 to push past the mental baggage Ocon carried from how he felt he was mistreated during the final races of his Alpine stint, as that team coalesced around Pierre Gasly and edged Ocon toward the exit. But the team began to notice a worrying pattern: when results didn't go Ocon's way he would become defensive and tensions in the garage would rise and Haas gradually felt there was ultimately a lack of accountability for his own issues. This is not a problem unique to Ocon. Many drivers get trapped in a paranoid mindset and it's worth remembering the specific background to Ocon's racing career. He got to F1 against all financial odds, with absolutely no silver spoon in his mouth, overcoming adversity right from his earliest days in karting. So he was probably always more likely than most to have a 'me against the world' mentality. When you have to fight your way into F1 in the first place, that combative streak can be a very powerful weapon - but it can also become all too easily ingrained. As the defeats to Bearman piled up through the course of 2025, Ocon began repeating complaints publicly about his car, in particular the brakes. At the start of 2026 Haas made a concerted effort to get proper alignment between Ocon and all the staff working on his side of the garage. But as the year has gone on and Haas has slowly realised it has deeper technical issues itself to deal with, tensions have risen again. The team ultimately feels Ocon has been too combative internally when backs have been against the wall, as well as questioning car specifications or performance discrepancies, or wasting time on blind-alley set-up work. This is likely to be a matter of perspective. Ocon almost certainly believes he is just being straightforward, doing the job of trying to push the team forward by being demanded, as was mapped out right from the start - and therefore Haas is simply now using the thing they said they wanted from him originally against him. ## Why mini-revival hasn't saved him ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/XPB_1439774_HiRes.jpg) Ocon has only occasionally shown the best of himself at Haas. Some excellent race results in his first year were overshadowed by a general qualifying struggle over the season and a particular, inconsistent problem pushing the car on the brakes in the final part of the year. This year, he missed the small window to score big results when Haas was more competitive before its form declined in the midfield - a mix of his own misjudgement like in China and some genuine misfortune with safety car timings. That has warped the points situation versus Bearman, who scored 17 of his 20 points in the first two races. Since then it's 7-3 in Ocon's favour. And he has been better than what some seem willing to credit him for. Haas's decline and the onset of more car inconsistencies - this time on both sides of the garage - have prevented Ocon from doing anything standout to plead his case. This has to be considered a degree of mitigation for Ocon. Bearman said it makes it “really challenging” for the drivers because the behaviour can change completely from track to track. Still, even a mini-revival hasn't changed Ocon's fate. His general performances and attitude did improvesince Haas told him his F1 career with the team was hanging by a thread. And had Ocon performed at the level he's shown since the end of the summer break consistently over the majority of the past 18 months, Haas would view the situation very differently. Ocon would have a strong case for being retained. Komatsu rates Ocon very highly when he's at his best, and also likes him as a person - feeling he is a genuinely nice guy when all is well and amicable. It's simply the case that Ocon's working relationship became strained and his time at Haas has been a cycle of short bursts of sustained improvement, followed by a regression to old bad habits. Taking Baku as an example, where Ocon qualified 13th but beat Bearman to eighth in the race, Haas was left unimpressed by the way Ocon reacted to his Q2 exit in qualifying, failing to take responsibility for an error on his first run then reacting badly to a yellow flag interruption on his second run that Bearman - who also went out in Q2 in the same circumstances - handled much better, despite being the younger and less experienced driver. Ocon also switched the running order of the cars without informing the team, seen as further evidence Ocon can sometimes act in his own interests than those of the team. Although by this time you could argue he knows he's on his way out - so why bother going the extra mile to keep Haas happy? Ocon's Baku race performance reminds everyone of the calibre of driver Ocon is and what he can bring at his best. But it was not simply a case of too littletoo late, just generally too late. ## Money factor is secondary Other speculation has surrounded Haas's perceived financial uncertainty and claims that owner Gene Haas wants Camara because it will bring in necessary commercial backing. The eponymous team owner's position is said to be far less involved than that, though. He will just rubber-stamp whatever Komatsu decides or have the final say if there's a close call. There is not an indication that Haas himself is ordering this move or has even guided its direction. So, where might money have crept into it? The Race understands that Komatsu told Ocon he was unlikely to be retained in 2027 after the summer break, although it was not a definitive ‘you're out'. Haas felt that, on the balance of the results and performance levels Ocon had delivered so far, it couldn't justify paying him what is understood to be a multi-million dollar salary. It's fair to wonder how much of this is purely driven by Ocon failing to justify the money Haas is paying him, and how much is down to the commercial reality of Haas operating below the cost cap and generally being underfunded. And it's possible that Ocon took this as the team not being willing to pay for a driver of his track record, hence his remarks about there being elements at play behind the scenes that are “out of my control”. Money was at least a secondary factor in who should replace him. Komatsu has admitted that if two drivers were of equal perceived performance then “affiliations or the packages they've got matters”. There is an understanding that Camara's arrival will come with commercial benefits from South America that Ocon himself cannot match. That's undeniably to Haas's benefit that Camara comes with a big commercial benefit - from his personal Brazilian backers, rather than Ferrari - but the package he offers is not thought to be at the scale Haas title sponsor Toyota could bring to get current test driver Ryo Hirakawa that seat, for example. If Haas was purely prioritising money/marketing reasons over competitive considerations, Hirakawa would be the obvious choice here. But it was agreed he would only get the nod if he was also fastest in the shootout. He wasn't. Toyota knows this and has accepted it. ## A stand-out alternative ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/XPB_1439446_HiRes-1.jpg) The prospect of Camara lining up alongside Bearman - long considered a future Ferrari driver and a long-time protege - has caused some to draw unfair comparisons to Red Bull controlling two teams' driver line-ups in F1. Haas is not a Ferrari-controlled vehicle for it to just test junior drivers. The affiliation affords access and makes it a lot more convenient, so it greases the wheels certainly. But there is no prerequisite and nothing Ferrari can do to force Haas to take a driver it does not want. In that sense, Haas likely having an all-Ferrari pairing has been described to The Race as more of a ‘coincidence' than anything else. Ocon was never going to be retained over Bearman, considering Bearman's Ferrari support, age, and higher potential, as well as his Max Verstappen-esque tolerance for rear instability in the car. So, with Bearman set to stay, Ocon had to ward off these external threats to earn his own seat. As these alternatives pressed their case during various Testing Of Previous Cars evaluations, so Haas realised: why pay Ocon for a job they felt, over a season, someone else could do - and potentially do better - without the baggage and hassle following the incumbent driver around? The [emergence of Camara](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-2027-next-rookie-rafael-camara-haas-ferrari/) sealed the deal. Haas tested him at Portimao and was blown away by Camara's immense one-lap pace - so strong that, on the day, even Bearman couldn't match him with the reference work he did. That's not to suggest Camara is quicker than Bearman overall, but it basically serves as evidence that on the shootout day Camara was the standout. Hirakawa came in second best, while McLaren junior Leonardo Fornaroli was fast in steady state conditions but struggled when things became windier and trickier. Ally that to the professional and focused attitude he displayed throughout proceedings, and it was in the end an easy decision for Haas to make - especially once it had decided that Ocon's time at the team needed to come to an end.