Haas staff principal Ayao Komatsu is “very proud” of the best way Esteban Ocon dealt with his collision with Franco Colapinto in Formulation 1’s Chinese language Grand Prix.
The incident occurred after Colapinto pitted from eighth on lap 32 of the race; the Alpine emerged out of the pits proper in entrance of Ocon, who tried a late lunge down the within within the Turns 1-2 curve however ended up with nowhere to go and clipped his rival’s automotive, with each of them despatched right into a spin.
Colapinto recovered to attain his first level with Alpine, and Ocon apologised to his rival on the finish of the race, earlier than talking to the media.
“I deserve the penalty,” Ocon then mentioned. “I used to be combating with Franco the entire race, in order that’s clearly my fault on that final incident. I used to be a bit over-optimistic and the hole was not likely there.
“I am glad he nonetheless scored some extent, as a result of he drove a great race.”
This behaviour earned the Haas driver enthusiastic reward from Komatsu within the Suzuka paddock.
“Esteban right away accepted that was his mistake,” Haas’ staff boss mentioned. “That was, I feel, very, superb. He mentioned it right away within the automotive, right away I feel after the race, and he spoke to Franco. So, from our facet, Esteban was 100% spot on. That is how I prefer to see our drivers behave. So I am very pleased with Esteban, how he is been behaving.”
Ayao Komatsu, Haas F1 Group
Picture by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures
Though Colapinto accepted Ocon’s apology and his administration pleaded together with his supporters to “not ship hateful messages or demise threats to Esteban”, the latter confronted a barrage of abuse on social media – a recurring theme relating to Argentinian followers nowadays. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem responded to these demise threats by sending Ocon a letter of help.
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“I can’t management what different individuals say,” Komatsu contemplated. “However all I can say is how Esteban’s conducting himself. For me, I am absolutely behind him. It takes an enormous particular person to come clean with errors – right away, no excuse.
“, he was racing exhausting all of the race, proper? So, he is been annoyed, however then he made a mistake. After which he got here up right away and mentioned, ‘Look, that is on me’, right away. You may’t ask greater than that.”
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Group
Picture by: Simon Galloway / LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures
Haas goes into the third spherical of the 2026 season, the Japanese Grand Prix, in fourth place within the constructors’ standings – only one level behind reigning world champion McLaren. Oliver Bearman single-handedly achieved this with the 17 factors he scored, however this efficiency doesn’t imply Haas simply is ‘better of the remainder’, with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine a transparent challenger up to now.
“It is very circuit-dependent,” Komatsu analysed. “In Bahrain, Alpine regarded very robust, and in Melbourne, I feel they weren’t as robust as all people anticipated them to be, proper? I do not know what is going on on there, so I can’t pinpoint why, however for regardless of the purpose, they weren’t. Then in Shanghai, they had been precisely what we anticipated from Bahrain.
“I do not know who’s going to be at the vanguard of the midfield. It is all very shut, you understand, us, Alpine, Audi and Racing Bulls. We’re very, very shut. So I feel whoever has a greater preparation coming to each race weekend, whoever hits the bottom operating in FP1, enhancing it, that may swing between the highest of the midfield there to the underside very, very simply. So I do not assume anybody is forward, together with us, to be truthful.”
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