France’s Esteban Ocon heads into the 2025 F1 Australian GP weekend as a Haas driver, and his race debut with the VF-25 is three days away.
Esteban Ocon on his move to Haas F1 and the difficulties faced ahead of the Australian GP
As Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz and others can relate to, switching teams in the off-season brings plenty of challenges. Adapting and settling into your new team is important, understanding how each other works. Getting to grips with a new car is key, too.
The 2021 Hungarian GP winner discussed it in his print media session at Albert Park on Thursday, detailing the work he and the team have done over the winter to start on a solid footing.
“Yeah, it is a very difficult task. There are a lot of things which are different. It’s very important to understand each other.
“Some things can be very similar across teams, but there is a very different terminology or how things are called. And also to get used to a different working environment as well, it’s something that you need to get used to.
“[You have to] try and adapt to the car you have and try and fix the procedures that won’t be working for you quite early. So when you get into a rhythm for five years, always working in the same way, for sure it’s a big change.
“But I feel like we’ve prepared the best way we can. We’ve done a lot of work since Abu Dhabi last year. And now it’s time for real to see where we are exactly, finally.
“So it is definitely exciting to be here and to start for real because testing is interesting, but it is not my favourite part. My favourite part is racing and why we are all here. So that’s going to be fun.”
A race weekend is the litmus test
The 28-year-old says only on race weekends can drivers and teams truly find out how well they are working together in a new relationship. It means they can work on improving things quickly and learning to get the best out of each other.
Esteban Ocon and Haas get the chance to do that this weekend at the F1 Australian GP.
“Yeah, I mean there are still a few things that we are figuring out, getting ready. Because you can do as much testing as you want, to be in real conditions is never really the case. You need to prepare for each session, discuss strategy.
“Going into a race weekend is so different to a test. The best way to prepare is really to race. And that’s why being here and actually having a normal first day where we prep the race weekend, it’s now that we see the little details and what we need to adjust exactly.
“I think so far we’ve left nothing on the table. So far we’ve prepared well, but there will be things to adjust for sure in the beginning of the year.”
A difficult end to F1 testing but the next 72 hours will reveal everything for Haas at the Australian GP, says Ocon
Haas F1 have had some difficulties with their bodywork on the VF-25 ahead of the new season. Sidepod damage during a shakedown at Silverstone with Ocon was not ideal, and it continued in Bahrain testing as part of Ollie Bearman’s engine cover broke off on the last day.
Ocon admits it was not an ideal ending to their test. Haas F1 very much focused on long runs with the VF-25, although more performance running came at the end of it. The French driver’s best time was P17 overall.
He says Friday practice will start to give the team a true idea of where they are at.
“Yeah, I think our first two days of the test we felt very good with the car. It was very solid, I was happy with it.
“The last day was a bit more difficult for us, but also Ollie [Bearman] had some damage early in the day. So it was a difficult day to get a proper read really.
“It was different conditions as well because it was a lot more windy. So the last day gave us a bit more of a difficult end of the test as it was going super smoothly on the first two days.
“Tomorrow we will be able to tell a bit more, because we will know more about the fuel loads of everyone, how they are pushing and what we will get.
“I’m patient. Tomorrow is the day when we will be able to tell a clearer picture.”
Haas identifies where they need to improve
Heading into the 2025 F1 season, Haas looks to have a taken a step back with the VF-25 compared to where they were towards the end of last season. They were regular points scorers and genuinely a contender for best of the rest behind the top 4 teams.
On a positive note, Esteban Ocon believes the team has already worked out where they need to improve their package as the F1 Australian GP approaches.
“I think it’s a bit early to say. Overall, I think we’re going to have to wait to do a bit more.
“We know exactly where we have to improve straight away, and where the strong points of the car is. It is very clear to us, which is a very good thing.
“From the first day we’ve managed to put the finger on where we needed to improve, and that’s good.”
