Ocon Admits Cadillac Pressure Forced Costly Canada Sprint Mistake

Esteban Ocon could not hide his concern after the sprint race of the Canadian Grand Prix. The French Haas driver, who finished in thirteenth position, had to push hard to hold off Sergio Pérez, but the Mexican's Cadillac was clearly faster: "He was held up by us, Pérez was faster than us and that's why I make a mistake and let him through" confessed Ocon with a smile that did not hide the seriousness of the diagnosis.

The Haas VF-26, which started from fourteenth position, managed to climb to eleventh place taking advantage of its rivals' problems, but the pace did not keep up: "We really weren't fast, during this race we degraded the rear tires a lot and we had a lot of difficulty taking the kerbs" explained Ocon, who resisted the pressure from the Cadillac for 20 of the 23 laps.

Finally on lap 20, Ocon made a mistake at turn 8 that cost him dearly: "I make this mistake because I try to attack 100% to keep them behind, I went straight and we lost four positions there" he said. The Frenchman dropped to fifteenth place, although later penalties to Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg allowed him to recover two positions in the final classification.

The finding is worrying for Haas, which until now had been one of the reference teams in the midfield. The fact that a Cadillac, one of the two worst cars on the 2026 grid alongside Aston Martin, was faster than the VF-26 in race pace is a wake up call for the American team.

The situation is aggravated because Haas decided not to bring upgrades to Miami and debuted them in Canada, but the results are not as expected, Oliver Bearman, the only driver equipped with the new features during the first part of the weekend, was not only clearly outperformed in qualifying, but started from the pit lane on Saturday for a real size testing session with modified setups and the Briton finished in eighteenth position.

Ocon admitted that the team needs an urgent reaction: "It's difficult for now, we have to try to understand why we are so far off and why it's not working."

Sunday's main race will be another opportunity for Haas, but the outlook is discouraging. Meanwhile, Checo Pérez and Cadillac celebrated a weekend in which, at least in pace, they showed they have taken a step forward, the Mexican was seventeenth in the sprint, but his feelings were much better than in previous races.