Oliver Bearman called the Hungarian GP "horrible" and did not understand the loss of confidence compared to Spa. Esteban Ocon was 16th and highlighted the VF-26's lack of consistency. Aston Martin has emerged as a new rival in the midfield.
Haas lived a weekend to forget at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The American team went empty handed from the Hungaroring after Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon were light years away from the points zone. The Briton, who was penalized for ignoring blue flags and finished nineteenth, described the event as the most horrible of all: "I couldn't find any kind of confidence and it's like all that progress we made in the two previous events just vanished and we're back to zero" declared Bearman.
The Haas driver did not understand the performance difference between Spa and Hungary: "I don't understand how we can go to Spa and have such a competitive feeling and confidence with the car and then I come here and the car is an absolute nightmare to drive. We think we understand why, and that's important, but we need to go through things thoroughly before the next race" he stated.
Bearman explained the driving difficulties at the Hungaroring: "It was at turn 2 that was the worst corner for me throughout the weekend. I knew I was at the limit of the steering, I didn't have enough steering angle to recover the car. It happened very suddenly, so yes, that's just a sign of how difficult it is to drive today" he recounted.
The Briton pointed to the VF-26's lack of consistency as the main problem: "We measure big differences in load values compared to this event and compared to the other cars, yes it's the car. It was a horrible, horrible weekend and it's just a sign of how weak we are in terms of consistency" he explained.
Esteban Ocon, who finished sixteenth, also sought a positive side in Hungary: "As for this aspect, being able to choose a bit more the gears we put in and choose the driving style we want is much better. It reminds a bit of the old days, this circuit is still my absolute favorite" said the Frenchman.
Ocon acknowledged that Aston Martin has become a new rival for Haas: "The Aston Martins are now another contender we have to fight against, with tire degradation at play on our side you struggle a lot more with a lot of sliding. As soon as we enter race mode, we struggle more with pace and that shows the lack of grip we have" he explained.
The Frenchman highlighted the increase in consistency as the biggest gain of the weekend: "Getting the car to be healthy and getting the most out of the car this weekend felt good, there are a lot of things on my side that have taken a long time but now finally they are also on my car, which I'm very happy about" he stated.
Ocon acknowledged that the team still has a lot of work to do: "The team did a great job, we did the right work, of course we have to continue with that because there are still many things we don't understand, we'll see how that goes..." he concluded.
Haas now has the task of ensuring that the cars are set up equivalently on both sides of the garage. The team has not yet figured out why this imbalance exists, and Bearman and Ocon hope that upgrades will arrive soon.
