Haas were one of just three teams not to score points in Australia, as their drivers propped up the field at the end of a chaotic wet-dry race at Albert Park. Esteban Ocon finished 13th in Melbourne and Ollie Bearman 14th as the duo struggled to explain what had happened to the VF-25’s performance.
Haas never looked at the races all weekend, with the challenging conditions not helping them as they searched for answers to their apparent lack of pace. From windy conditions to extremely hot ones, and then rain for the race itself, still Ocon and Bearman found themselves running at the back.
READ MORE: 5 Winners and 5 Losers from Australia – Who started their season in style?
Both at least made it to the chequered flag on Sunday, and both stayed out of trouble, but even the team’s gamble to initially remain on intermediate tyres while everyone else pitted for slicks under Safety Car conditions did not pay off.
“It was worth trying as in the end we didn’t lose any time, we just optimised what we had, and I think it is really the performance we missed out on this race,” Ocon said after his race debut with the American team.
Haas’s lack of pace ‘quite unexpected’ – Ocon
“If we had a little bit more we could have been in the mix for points. The cars were fighting just in front and I was there. There was two or three positions for me to get inside the top 10 but I just couldn’t keep up unfortunately.
“That’s why we need to give it a good look as it is not what we’ve seen, so it is quite unexpected to be where we are in this weekend. I’m sure we will figure out things to turn it around in the next round.”
For Bearman, there was relief to make it to the end of the race on a day that saw four of his fellow rookies crash out, especially given he had already been involved in two incidents across the weekend in the dry.
But with so little running under his belt, P14 is in many ways a credible effort – and one that has garnered the team plenty of data ahead of this weekend’s race in China.
Bearman: ‘It’s been a surprise for all of us that we’re not in the fight for points’
“That was the aim of today, get the laps in and collect data really,” Bearman said. “I was quite happy with my performance, I felt I executed pretty well.
“There were a few things where we lost a bit of time, but when we are not fighting for the points, that’s the time to try things, and it didn’t work out.
“But I’m glad with how I performed, obviously finishing the weekend on a high is good, and now we head to China.
“I think it’s been a surprise for all of us that we are not in the fight for points, so that’s of course an unwelcome surprise, we are a bit disappointed with that. But we are going to work hard to fix that.”
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