Haas stresses importance of trust and clarity for Ocon success
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu believes building a strong foundation of trust and clear communication with Esteban Ocon will be essential for the Frenchman's success at the team.
Ocon is set to join Haas in 2025 alongside rookie and Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman, forming an entirely new driver lineup that succeed the US outfit’s current pairing of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.
Looking ahead to 2025, Komatsu emphasized the importance of transparency and a shared understanding of expectations within the team, a clear work protocol that should benefit all involved parties, and particularly Ocon who has had at times this season a rocky relationship at Alpine with the outfit’s management and with teammate Pierre Gasly.
“Honestly, I think lots of it comes down to transparency, trust and then clarity of rules of engagement,” Komatsu said, quoted by RACER. “I think that problems happen when a certain trust is broken between team and driver.
“Not in my current position but I’ve been doing Formula 1 for a reasonably long time – in my various positions of race engineer, chief race engineer, director of engineering or current position of tam principal.
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“My experience is that as long as I approach them with transparency, no personal agenda, a clear team’s agenda about how we need to go through this race weekend or this year, what’s the objective, what’s the rules of engagement… As long as that’s clarified in advance, as long as the communication is totally transparent then the trust is there.
“When the trust is there then I haven’t actually encountered any issues that got out of hand. So I’m not worried, personally.
“If I was worried then I wouldn’t have chosen this combination, because it’s my responsibility that we have two drivers that work for the best interests of the team. I have no doubt that Ollie and Esteban will deliver that.”
Ocon’s main ‘faux-pas’ this year was his high-profile run-in with Gasly at Monaco, when a misjudged overtaking maneuver on the race’s opening lap eliminated him from the event and very nearly terminated Gasly’s afternoon.
The incident was brought up by Komatsu during his contract talks with Ocon.
“Of course we had to consider it,” said the Japanese engineer. “It’s not like it’s gone unnoticed, it’s a pretty major incident. So I had a conversation with him, and still made that decision. I’m happy with it.”
Komatsu says that so far he’s been impressed by Ocon's enthusiasm for the Haas project.
“He’s only 27, he’s still got lots to prove, and for me he’s still got amazing commitment and work ethic,” the Haas team ^principal explained.
“And when I met him and explained the project to him about where we are and what we’re trying to achieve, I wasn’t trying to convince him, I just told him as it is. And then he just got completely on board, to be honest much more so than I expected.
“He was so engaged, he wanted to be part of this project and he believes in this project. It means quite a lot to me that we have a driver – experienced driver – with a good track record, still young, still has a lot to prove, and he completely 100 percent believes in the project.
“I am sure he will give us his all, so I am really looking forward to it.”
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