Esteban Ocon is under a lot of pressure. Haas is not having a good season, even by their standards, and much of it falls on Esteban’s shoulders. To make matters worse, it became public knowledge that Ocon might leave the team even before the 2026 season ends, if the story released by the Brazilian journalist Julianne Cerasoli is to be believed.
Ocon was supposed to be the better out of the two drivers that Haas has started this season, but after he started tracking even behind his teammate Oliver Bearman, who is a lot younger and more inexperienced, there is little to no excuses to be made for Ocon’s poor performances to start the year. What was obvious for the onlookers is now clear for the higher ups in Haas and that’s the fact that Bearman has shown enough to be the team’s lead driver going forward.
The American team is not sitting idle while their season is falling apart, and the rumours are already starting to circle that a replacement is prepared for Ocon. One of the first names that popped out is Yuki Tsunoda. The list doesn’t end with Tsunoda, as names such as Jack Doohan formerly of Alpine are in the mix, together with Rafael Camara, Dino Beganovic, Ryo Hirakawa, and Sho Tsuboi also being in the mix.
Ocon’s Haas adventure is most likely coming to an end, and as much was confirmed by the team’s boss, Ayao Komatsu according to Julianne Cerasoli. During an interview with UOL Esporte channel, she said that he is not happy with the level of performance Esteban Ocon is currently showing. It’s not the performances, but the team’s head honcho doesn’t like the diver, and that the chances are that he will not be there when the season ends. Ocon’s situation is far from ideal, and the chances are he is going to get sacked in coming weeks.
According to different sources, the rift between Ocon and Komatsu started during the Miami GP. Professionally, the gap between Bearman and Ocon is starting to get more and more visible with each passing race, and the current lead man is not driving by the standards required from his position. The worst part of the situation for Ocon is that his reputation precedes him. While undoubtedly a fast driver, a resilient persona, with tons of enigma around his appearance, he has gotten the moniker of a polarizing figure in the F1 caravan for being lazy around the engineers, or throwing tantrums in the garage. He is described as difficult to work with by his teammates, and a hard personality to manage by the team’s chiefs.
With everything that we said, it is getting more than evident that his days with Haas are numbered, but also brings out the question whether he has a future in Formula 1 after Haas. One thing is clear, if he doesn’t drastically improve for the Canadian Grand Prix which is on schedule for 24th of May, at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, we probably won’t be seeing him for the remainder of the season. At the end of the day, he has only won 1 point on the year, with Bearman having 17, and that tells you more than enough.
Read about Esteban Ocon recent Canada GP incident that caused Red Flag.
