‘It’s not always a fair fight’ – Ocon and Bearman open up on ‘inconsistencies’ that have impacted Haas’ season

Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman have explained how “inconsistency” across their respective cars is making life difficult for Haas this season, with the latter admitting that “it’s not always a fair fight” between the two drivers.

Haas enjoyed a strong start to the 2026 campaign and F1’s new era of regulations, with Bearman earning a P7 finish in Australia and a P5 in China, and the team as a whole scoring points in five of the opening six rounds.

However, despite bringing upgrades to the track, they have dropped into the midfield pack at the last four events, across which Ocon has increasingly pointed out differences in the feel and performance of his VF-26.

As the F1 paddock assembles in Hungary for the final race before the summer break, Ocon was asked about his biggest learnings and struggles so far this year, prompting the Frenchman to double down on those recent remarks.

“The biggest struggle I think has been the consistency of the car,” said Ocon. “One time we had straight-line issues, one time downforce issues. The car hasn’t been healthy all the time, let’s say, and hasn’t been performing like it should. That has hurt us [in] performing well.

“Unfortunately, I think there’s only been two races where we were performing as normal for the car level that we had. That’s where we need to improve things.”

Pushed on whether a chassis change might help, Ocon continued: “I don’t think the chassis is the problem. We keep circling through parts.

“In Spa, we were lacking a lot of straight-line speed that came out of nowhere. We had a little bit of straight-line losses in Silverstone on Friday, but we fixed it for Saturday and Sunday, and everything was working well from then.

“We also had an imbalance from front to rear with the downforce – way too much front, lacking rear downforce as well from Saturday. That was not the case on Friday, so it’s just big inconsistencies from session to session, from weekend to weekend, even when we don’t necessarily change parts.

“Things seem to be moving left to right and, out of all the races we’ve done, only two have been normal in terms of car performance and car health. That’s where we’re struggling and we’re working on it.

“We keep giving it everything we can by circulating parts and getting older stuff on the car. It’s been hurting us, for sure.”

It was not just Ocon who referenced these apparent inconsistencies, with team mate Bearman also giving his take on the situation during Thursday’s driver press conference at the Hungaroring.

Questioned about leading Haas’ charge in 2026, with the Briton scoring 18 points to Ocon’s three until now, Bearman said: “It’s a tough situation which is happening in our team. We’ve been speaking about it a lot, but the inconsistency between our parts has been quite high.

“I’ve been on the bad side of that, I’ve also been on the good side of that. It’s a shame, because it means that you’re always chasing a moving target. Overnight we can have changes to our car balance without expecting that.

“All of that to say, it’s not always a fair fight, the one that we are having. Sometimes we feel like we’re fighting with our hands almost tied behind our back.”

As Haas’ wait for more points continues, Bearman added: “Of course, I feel like I’m performing at a really high level, and I really see a step in my performances from 12 months ago, even from the start of the season. That’s all I can do, right?

“At this stage, we’re not in the fight for points, we’re not in the fight to do a whole lot, other than try and get the most out of ourselves and learn as much as possible in this difficult period, hoping that soon we’re going to have the performance to put that to work and score points.

“It’s been a challenge for us, I’m happy with what I’m doing, but the story is not necessarily what you see on the headline.”

Haas sit seventh in the Teams’ Championship after the first 10 rounds on 21 points, ahead of Williams, Audi, Aston Martin and 2026 newcomers Cadillac.