Esteban Ocon has admitted that he is now “speaking the same language” as his new colleagues at Haas prior to his race debut with the team in the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Ocon’s move to Haas is the fourth time that he has started with a new team in the sport, but it is the first occasion since he reunited with the Renault-owned operation in 2020.
The Frenchman had become accustomed to the Alpine-branded team’s methods having remained with the Anglo-French marque until an acrimonious departure last season.
With Haas the smallest team on the entire grid, Ocon has professed the preparation he has received in advance of the upcoming campaign has come as a positive surprise.
That has helped to ease his adaptation as he divulged that the initial language barrier that had existed during his initial technical discussions at Haas is no longer prevalent.
“I’ve been working in a way for five years now and you are so used to something that sometimes when you get told the same thing in a different way it can take a little bit of time for you to find out,” Ocon told select media including Motorsport Week in Bahrain last month.
“So we’ve discussed all these things and we’ve converged to now speaking the same language in a way.
“So yeah, I thought it was going to be tricky, but it got a lot smoother than expected on that sense, especially working on tyres.
“So it’s been good at the moment and as I said we need to obviously face more different circumstances and different things.”
Ocon backs Haas testing run programme
Ocon also encountered an alternative experience in pre-season testing amid Haas’ emphasis on racking up race runs with both him and rookie team-mate Oliver Bearman.
“At the moment trouble-free days, no issues, we kept focussing on long-run performance, which is the aim, which is what the team wants,” the one-time race winner highlighted.
“And I agree with the team that it’s a new way of working for me in testing.
“But it’s definitely nice to have a lot of laps, a lot of data, a lot of different runs like that and a little satisfaction as well to be the driver that did the most laps yesterday.”
Haas restructuring has been seamless
Ocon’s arrival has coincided with a sizeable restructuring at Haas as it strives to iron out the operational errors that boss Ayao Komatsu believes cost it sixth place in 2024.
The most notable change comprised Laura Mueller being appointed the first female F1 race engineer to Ocon, who revealed that the transition has gone seamlessly to date.
“It’s been super smooth and I think that’s because the people that have been put in those positions have been super well prepared and trained,” he explained.
“Of course, when you come to the race weekend it’s always different and everybody can do mistakes, including myself.
“It’s very normal but at the moment, I’ve been learning things every single time I went out and we’ve been having very open conversations with Laura, with Francesco [Nenci], with everyone.
And it’s been going well and I’m happy with the team that we’ve got obviously going forward.”
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