Esteban Ocon likened his Haas to a “road car” after another difficult weekend in Austria left him twice lapped by the leaders.
For the third time this season, Haas left a weekend without a point, with Ocon being lapped twice by the leaders.
Esteban Ocon gives assessment of ‘road car’ Haas
Given the level of pre-season optimism, it has been a disappointing campaign for both Haas and in particular Ocon, who is on just three points, 15 behind his team-mate Oliver Bearman.
In Austria, Ocon started 15th and was able to rise up to 12th by the end of the first lap but soon regressed with the timing of the virtual safety car proving to be particularly frustrating.
Speaking after his P16 finish, Ocon said the team had “struggled massively again” and commented it felt like he was driving a “road car.”
“To be honest, I was struggling to keep the car on track towards the end of the race,” he said.
“The team has done everything they could to try and fix the issue and load that we are missing by the rear of the car, and the problem is still there, like I’m running at the bottom of the front wing, we are cooking the rear tyres, and I finished three and a half seconds slower than everyone else.
“So it’s fun for nine laps every time I box, but after that I’m just killing the tyres, and then I have to do one more stop compared to everyone else.
“That was very similar in Monaco, it was very similar in Barcelona, and it’s still a problem here, so I think the positive is that we exploited the maximum amount of what we have in hand, but obviously it’s very far from where we should be.
“I mean, at the pace I’m going, to be honest, it’s like driving in a road car.”
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Ocon also highlighted not just a lack of speed but a lack of reliability too, commenting that finishing the race “would be a good step forward.”
“I think there’s two issues: getting my car healthy and the overall performance,” he continued.
“Because even if all these cars are healthy, we’re still missing some performance, but you know, already finishing the race for me would be a good step forward.
“So struggling with a lot with the same things really, and we’ll keep pushing hard in Silverstone.”
Team-mate Bearman meanwhile described it as an “anonymous weekend.”
“I did my very best,” he said. “Pushing the whole race, and tried to maximise everything, and I really think I did.
“If you look at where I finished, I don’t think I could have really done any better. I was driving as fast as I could manage, as well as I could, everything, but we’re just not quick enough this weekend.”
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Originally published by Planet F1 —
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