Haas F1 experienced a Dutch Grand Prix to forget: already struggling in terms of performance since the start of the weekend, the American team recorded a double retirement at Zandvoort.
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Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were both victims of mechanical problems during the race.
Reliability was however one of Haas’s strengths since the beginning of the season. But in the Netherlands, both cars encountered problems that could be related.
Ocon puts his engine failure into perspective
Ocon was forced to stop in the last part of the race after a problem suddenly locked his rear wheels: “We had an engine failure, I don’t know yet what it was, the rear wheels locked, I couldn’t continue. I think it’s potentially the same problem that Oliver had at the start of the race.”
The Frenchman does not want to dramatize this first real reliability warning of the season: “It’s very hard to say, we haven’t had many reliability problems this year, this is the first. But it was the end of life for this engine, we should have changed to another one so it’s not the end of the world.”
Ocon should therefore not receive a grid penalty by using a new power unit in Monza. However, the premature loss of this engine could complicate the management of his allocation until the end of the season: “It doesn’t penalize us, but the lifespan will be more difficult at the end of the year. We will have to extend the mileage on the other engines so it will be more complicated.”
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Haas will especially have to precisely determine the origin of the failure to ensure it does not threaten the other power units still available.
“Horrible” weekend for Bearman
Oliver Bearman’s race ended much earlier. After the race was stopped, the Briton couldn’t even reach the grid for the second start, his engine having cut out during the formation lap: “We had a good start, a good first lap and then there was the red flag. The engine went off during the formation lap, it cut out.”
For Bearman, this failure mainly concludes a weekend during which Haas never seemed able to fight for points: “It’s a shame, but it was a horrible weekend, so we will have to find performance.”
Attention now turns to Monza, where Haas must introduce upgrades eagerly awaited by its drivers. After the difficulties encountered at Zandvoort, Bearman does not hide his hopes: “We’ve been waiting for them for a long time, that’s for sure, we hope they will be strong.”
Haas therefore leaves the Netherlands with a double problem: understanding the origin of two unusual mechanical failures and regaining performance. The upgrades planned for the Italian Grand Prix will be particularly important to determine if the team can reverse the trend.
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