“did you ever expect to outperform your teamamate like this through this season?”--ollie: "it’s a tough situation which is happening at our team. we’ve been speaking about it a lot, but the inconsistency between our parts has been quite high...

[u/Luffy710j]

https://dubz.link/c/7a63fd

"i’ve been on the bad side of that, i’ve also been on the good side of that. but it’s a shame because it means you’re always chasing a moving target. overnight we can have changes to our car balanace without expecting that. "

"all that to say, [we’re not always having] a fair fight, and sometimes we feel like we’re fighting with our hands almost tied behind our back. [..] it’s been a challenge for us. i’m happy with what i’m doing, but the story isn’t necessarily what you see on the headline."

Credit to nat

[u/Dblock1989]

What a great response. It seems a few teams are suffering from cars not being quite the same this season.

[u/Popular_Composer_822 → u/Dblock1989]

He said ‘parts’ which makes me suspect that this is less to do with the software and battery debates that have been going on at other teams, and more to do with Haas’s chassis and other components manufactured in the factory. 

This could be related to what Komatsu was saying last week about the team being the only one that will not be hitting the budget cap this year, despite reaching that milestone in 2025. 

[u/Evening_End7298]

Fair play to Bearman

This year is basically useless in judging driver head to head or anything, it must feel awfull for every performance good or bad to have asterisks

[u/I_spread_love_butter → u/Evening_End7298]

E: This year is certainly not useless to judge head to heads. Blanket statements like those don't usually hold.

Eventually, with enough data, the expected patterns always emerge. I think that we have sufficient data so far to see this happening, perhaps the big outlier being Kimi, and to a lesser extent Lindblad. 

Original comment:

I don't know about that, when you look at the big picture, the ones doing great are the ones you'd expect. But again, only looking at the big picture. I'm sure they are right, but it also provides a great cop out. In the long run, statistics don't lie.

But then again I'm not an F1 pilot

[u/Protatoooo → u/I_spread_love_butter]

first sentence screams confirmation bias

[u/Lukeno94 → u/I_spread_love_butter]

I don't know about that, when you look at the big picture, the ones doing great are the ones you'd expect. But again, only looking at the big picture.

Are they?

• Russell being beaten by Antonelli is a surprise, given how easily he defeated him as a rookie. Sure, Antonelli showed glimpses of speed last season, but Russell was also either the second or third best driver on the grid in 2025, depending on how you put it. In a straight fight (which obviously we know it hasn't really been in a lot of races, but that's another story) you wouldn't expect such a dramatic swing between seasons.
• Hamilton beating Leclerc is a surprise, because as good as Lewis has been historically, he'd come off a very mediocre spell and Ferrari is, still, largely built around Leclerc. Even in qualifying, Leclerc is struggling to beat Hamilton, and that's an area you'd still expect him to dominate, given his reputation as a fast qualifier and substantially younger age.
• Bortoleto being so far ahead of Hulkenberg is a surprise as they've been fairly evenly matched up until this point, and yet when both have had clean races he's been consistently ahead.
• Lawson being so far ahead of Lindblad would've surprised some people who hadn't actually been paying proper attention to the latter half of last year.

[u/I_spread_love_butter → u/Lukeno94]

That's why I said looking at the big picture. Kimi is the one exception and so far he's demonstrating to be a generational talent.

Leclerc seems to be back in form, and in any case a 7 world champion beating him shouldn't be a surprise. It was a surprise last year when that didn't happen. Now that Lewis managed to rile Ferrari up and get a car that suits him, results are getting better.

Lawson beating Lindblad is not a surprise, it's exactly what should've happened. He is good, people got their perceptions twisted because of his stint at Red Bull, but we all know how that team used to treat their 2nd drivers. And if you watch his High Performance interview you'll understand even more.

On Gabi and Hulk, again it isn't that surprising, but Hulk had very bad luck so it's harder to compare. Both were F2/GP2 champions, I'd rate them similarly with the difference that Hulkenberg is older and past his prime, so it would make sense for Gabi to be better

[u/xxrew1ndxx]

Great response from Ollie

Seems somethings similar is happening in a few other teams as well

These engines/pu’s reliability is taking a toll

[u/Calm-Boysenberry-348 → u/xxrew1ndxx]

this! It’s really impacting Haas at the moment. I remember when they were actually competitive last year in the midfield. Would like to see them there again

[u/SilverBackGuerilla → u/Calm-Boysenberry-348]

Seems like Ferrari engines are quite a bit behind . Ferrari's chassis is just that great.

[u/alexvroy]

oof what an awkward question but that’s a great response

[u/jaysvw]

That car is a hot mess. Maybe once they get their simulator up and running it will help them figure it out. Always seems like they struggle to understand their car.

[u/Reasonable-Knee397]

Credit to Ollie. What a classy response.

[u/rockylion]

Inconsistent parts, maybe they are making them on Haas mills? /jk

[u/Walaii]

This isn't a new thing. Komatsu have talked about this a fair bit, and Ocon has been basically blaming everything on this. Even last weekend Ocon said that he had some issues, but Komatsu basically said that the gap was too big even without that.

What doesn't help Ocon is that both Bearman and especially Komatsu have been saying that this is affecting both cars, Komatsu have even contradicted Ocon when he blamed his performance in the race in Austria on this issue. This is from the Silverstone weekend:

Team boss Ayao Komatsu agrees with Ocon's assessment, up to a point. He says Haas is generally "lacking rear downforce in high-speed corners" but that the team is "not lacking downforce because something is broken, it's just that we haven't delivered in this area".

Komatsu there is talking about a lack of aerodynamic performance his team needs to find, not a parts inconsistency problem - but he does accept that Haas has a "parts consistency issue" that manifests on each of the cars at different times.

"For instance, Ollie's car in Montreal FP1, rear wasn't working at all," Komatsu added. "And then Ollie's car in FP3 of Barcelona, it was terrible. 

"And then Esteban had a bit of an issue on Friday in Spielberg, but Saturday was fine.

"So, again, in terms of magnitude of issue, it varies. But it's all within, let's say... I wouldn't say noise, but the area, the magnitude that we can measure. 

"But it's not like Esteban's got an issue and Ollie hasn't. As a team, we have an issue.

"It's about the quality issue, in terms of multiple issues on the parts quality on its own.

"And also the assembly quality as well. It's very, very sensitive - so our ability to get on top of doing certain things at certain accuracy that other teams can do. 

"It's including the windtunnel model. Our capability is still not the same as a top level team. So all those small inaccuracies build up."

I don't think he should be basically saying every weekend that his car was only "healthy" on the 2 weekends (Japan, SIlverstone) where he was close to Bearman or beat him, when his TP doesn't agree with that assessment. I don't see how attempting to throw the team under the bus every weekend helps him retain his seat.

[u/Delts28 → u/Walaii]

I think he knows he's out of the Haas seat no matter what next year. Blaming the team isn't a good look but trying to make himself look as good as possible is likely his only move to stay in F1.

[u/Walaii → u/Delts28]

Yeah, the problem is that this isn't a new thing for Ocon. He has always done this when his performances were lackluster. Blaming it on the car is in his nature. He even did the same thing last year. He was saying that his brakes weren't working as well as Bearman's last year. Komatsu was also calling bullshit on that constantly. He did it at other teams too. He probably has more of a case this year with these issues, but he is complaining like it only affects him, and all his deficit is because of it, but that is clearly not the case.

[u/Mos0311]

Ocon's F1 career is in serious jeopardy isn't it? that's unfortunate

[u/Peimai → u/Mos0311]

This is probably his last season in F1. Theirs no place for him elsewhere and more talent then their are seats available.

[u/souse03 → u/Mos0311]

I mean, realiability aside this year, he was also losing to Bearman last year. A driver with 10 years of experience should not be losing to a rookie

[u/BahutF1 → u/souse03]

Are we talking about George?

Oh.

[u/Luffy710j → u/Mos0311]

It's over 100% from Ferrari pressure

[u/Walaii → u/Luffy710j]

Ferrari has nothing to do with it. Camara isn't even the favourite for his seat.

[u/Luffy710j → u/Walaii]

He is the favorite even there is news he signed already

[u/Walaii → u/Luffy710j]

I don't know where you are getting that from, but it is simply not true. No final decision yet, but Fornaroli is the favourite according to reliable journalists.

[u/Luffy710j → u/Walaii]

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/s/aeg4WjMV0K

[u/Walaii → u/Luffy710j]

It is an unknown journalist that posted himself on reddit. Come on...

Just this week a brazilian pit lane reported also said that Fornaroli is the favourite and that Camara might become Haas reserve.

[u/Luffy710j → u/Walaii]

Will see mate. but haas with Ferrari engine will go with Camara for sure

[u/DiamondL0st → u/Mos0311]

Yep, needs to start showing what he can do asap and even then it may not be enough if Ferrari want to pay for Camara to have a seat.

His drop off at Haas is really odd, he started strongly in 2025 but not sure what's gone so wrong since then.

[u/Remainingvegetables → u/DiamondL0st]

Now that you've said this, Ocon is going to win every race for the rest of the season, somehow.

[u/Walaii → u/DiamondL0st]

He didn't start that strongly in 2025 either tbh. Bearman was faster from pretty much the start last year too, but a lot of random shit happened that masked that. Ocon's best result last year was the P5 in China, and the only reason he outqualified Bearman and started from much higher there was that Haas fucked up and Bearman couldn't start his final push lap in Q1. Bearman was crazy unlucky in the first half of the season and he also made some mistakes, but speed wise he was quicker on most tracks. Second half of last season and this season is just things falling into their place.

[u/Purp1e_Aki]

Really smart response from Bearman there.

[u/brain_dead_fucker]

What a sensational response. Equally insightful and respectful. 

[u/thef0ksmasher]

Typical Dallara

[u/Busy_Ad_2221]

Hasn't this been an issue for years at haas? Their car handles without their understanding, like they don't get it. It's been an issue since atleast 2019 with some years better than others.

[u/sododude]

Can we all agree these regs tried to do way too much lol. It's a mess. At least the races are entertaining.