Some drivers (such these in factors 14 and 13) have laboured to adapt to new groups after switching in the course of the low season. However Esteban Ocon seems to have discovered his ft at Haas in a short time and has delivered some wonderful outcomes for them.
Esteban Ocon
Greatest
Worst
GP begin
8
19
GP end
5
18
Factors
27
That proved important within the season-opener in Australia the place Haas found dealing with deficiencies of their VF-25. Ocon’s new workforce mate Oliver Bearman missed most of observe, leaving the veteran to make sure the workforce at the least got here away from the weekend with helpful knowledge.
Ocon put that to nice use with an impressive efficiency in China. Having run properly in qualifying to take eleventh on the grid he handed rivals together with Alexander Albon and, memorably, Andrea Kimi Antonelli for an excellent fifth place. This wasn’t a fluke consequence aided by a well-timed pit cease in a moist race; Ocon floor out a consequence which appeared much better than his automotive deserved on the time.
Since then Ocon has made a behavior of dragging his automotive out of the decrease reaches of the midfield and into the factors positions. At time this has helped him to rebound from sub-par performances in qualifying: In Bahrain he spun in Q1, lined up solely 14th on the grid, however battled his means ahead to eighth.
Bearman went from twentieth to tenth that day, however since then solely Ocon has added to Haas’s factors tally in grands prix. He gained 5 locations in Canada after playing by beginning the race on exhausting rubber. Austria was an particularly noteworthy efficiency, as he began solely seventeenth, however made an essential go on Lance Stroll which allowed him to grab the ultimate level.
One other of Ocon’s greatest outcomes got here in Monaco. This time he did qualify properly – at a monitor the place doing so is very essential – and from eighth on the grid he got here house seventh.
On different events Ocon hasn’t certified as properly or discovered the means to work his means forwards. This was significantly the case at Suzuka and Imola, tracks the place overtaking is troublesome, and earlier than Haas launched an improve which made a transparent enchancment to their automotive.
The tensions some predicted between Ocon and Bearman largely haven’t materialised, except for an ungainly tangle within the rain at Silverstone. Ocon has the higher hand for now, and gave one of the best indication of the workforce’s post-upgrade potential by beginning and ending fifth within the dash race at Spa. To this point he has loads of causes to be glad about his transfer from Alpine.
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