The pressure is on in 2026 with more than half of the Formula 1 grid soon out of contract.

Experienced F1 driver Esteban Ocon was outscored by rookie Haas team-mate Oliver Bearman in 2025 (Image: Getty)
Esteban Ocon has been told that Haas “expected more” from him in his first season with the team. The Frenchman was hired alongside rookie Oliver Bearman for a new-look driver lineup with the hope that Ocon, in his 10th Formula 1 season, would lead by example on track while Brit Bearman spent the year finding his feet on the grid.

The latter certainly held up the end of his bargain. The first half of the campaign proved to be a rocky experience, but Bearman found his feet after the summer break to put together a string of impressive performances and results, the highlight of which was a fourth-placed finish in the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Despite drawing a blank across the final two race weekends, Bearman’s late season charge saw him finish the year with 41 points, three more than Ocon managed across the same 24 rounds. Speaking to reporters this week, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu said it had been made clear to the Frenchman that he needs to step up his output in 2026.

The Japanese said: “We’ve had a very good ongoing talk over the winter, preparing for this pre-season, and we understand each other. He’s totally clear on what our team is expecting of him, and also I’m totally clear on what he needs from the team. We cleared everything and set everything up before the Barcelona shakedown, so I’m really happy with that.

“And then the way he approached the Barcelona test, again, absolutely progressed, so we’re working better together as a team. Esteban and Ollie are working well together – we’ve got to [work] better together to make progress as quickly as possible. At some of the testing we did, Esteban and Ollie’s feedback was very, very similar which is really nice in these new regulations.

“I think he understands who we are in terms of size of the team, the resource and how we need to prioritise, but also he understood the way of working a bit better ahead of the Barcelona testing, especially in a team like us, so I’m sure he can make more [of a] contribution this year.”

Haas boss Ayao Komatsu said he had spoken with Ocon over the winter to ‘clear everything’ (Image: Getty)

Komatsu went on to add: “If you look purely at a sporting result, without going into details, for sure nobody is satisfied with Esteban’s sporting result last year. He’s a team-mate against a rookie – yes, an amazing rookie, but nonetheless he’s got 10 years of F1 under his belt. He’s a race winner, he’s a podium finisher, so we expected more from him.

“Obviously, it’s not totally his fault. It’s 50/50 – sometimes it’s that as a team we couldn’t give him the car that he was comfortable [with], especially in qualifying, and sometimes that was exaggerated much more than others. Look at Baku – he really wasn’t happy with the braking performance and he was miles off in qualifying pace.

“Baku happened to be one of Ollie’s strongest circuits, but we didn’t expect Esteban to be so far off. But again, there’s not one reason – it’s not just the driver, it’s not just the team, and each instance is different. There’s no common underlining factor, it’s just the process, how we work together to get to the bottom of it so much quicker and then put things in place for the next race.”

Both Ocon and Bearman are out of contract at the end of 2026, which is expected to be a busier year for the driver market after little movement last season. Those who are performing best will fancy a shot at a quicker car, should a seat offering one become available. Ocon will want to put himself in a strong negotiating position, in case Haas find themselves in a position where they are able to attract interest from other strong drivers.