Esteban Ocon has been reflecting on the first time that he met Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu, with the Frenchman having once raced alongside his now boss – who he has called “probably the most competitive guy I’ve ever met” – many years ago.
Ocon is embarking on a new chapter of his career with Haas, having agreed last summer to join the squad in 2025 on a multi-year deal. The move has reunited the 28-year-old with Komatsu, who was present as an engineer at Ocon’s first F1 test for Lotus back in 2014, as well as his debut Free Practice 1 outing for the squad at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the same year.
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However, the two go back even further than this, as Ocon explained during an appearance on the Beyond The Grid podcast.
“2011 or 2010, I remember we were with Gwen Lagrue, who is in charge of the Mercedes young driver programme,” Ocon recalled. “I went there with him and there was like a 12-hour endurance race with F1 teams just taking part.
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“Ayao was there and racing, and I was part of the Lotus team. That was the first time we met. We were team mates. I was probably 35 kilos at the time, so I was very fast in the go-kart.
“I remember he was the only one who came to me and said: ‘Esteban, how do you take this corner? Do you take a little bit the kerb to prepare the next one?‘
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“And that will stick forever because I was much quicker than everyone in that corner, and no one really asked me how they could do it. But he was the one coming and asking me to try and gain something out of it.”
Pushed on whether Komatsu has changed much in the years since, Ocon responded: “I see the same competitive person I’ve seen. He’s probably the most competitive guy I’ve ever met. I think we share that together.”
Ocon has credited Komatsu with influencing the progress displayed by Haas since taking over as Team Principal in 2024
After a tricky opening weekend to the season, Haas have experienced some stronger outings in the races that have followed, with a particular highlight being a double-points finish for Ocon and team mate Ollie Bearman in China.
Reflecting on the turnaround, Ocon praised the efforts of the team – as well as hailing Komatsu’s leadership – for contributing to the step forward.
“The response to some of the difficulties that we faced and how quickly the people have been able to react, it’s something I’ve never seen before,” the one-time race winner said.
“To come up with an update after two races, from something that we’ve had the diagnostic [for] after the first race, it’s incredible as a turnaround. Even Ayao has been very impressed with how we’ve managed to be able to do that. He’s a clear leader of this team. It’s been very impressive.
“Also the technical side, he still has an eye on it and has a very good view on where we should move forward. It’s exactly what we need at the moment. This team has clearly shown huge progress since Ayao has joined at the lead and it’s great to see.”
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