As Esteban Ocon prepares to join Haas F1 next year, his future team principal Ayao Komatsu stated that he was "not bothered" by Ocon's past reputation, which was clouded by his on-track rivalries with teammates. The French driver has had his share of clashes over the years with Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, and Pierre Gasly.
Ocon will end his four-year relationship with Alpine after the 2024 season as he joins the F1 grid's sole American team alongside junior driver Oliver Bearman. The Ferrari reserve driver made his impressive F1 debut this year in Saudi Arabia by performing reserve driver duties for Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.
Ocon's clashes with teammates over the years have led to a reputation as a troublesome team player, though he can't be blamed for all of them. Komatsu acknowledged that this perception was a key topic of discussion before signing Ocon for Haas, describing their talks as being honest and focused on understanding Ocon's perspective on past incidents. Speaking to Crash.net during the Dutch GP weekend, the Haas team boss revealed:
"It was a discussion point but I have my belief from the beginning.
"I had to speak with Esteban in an honest way to understand where he's at in all those things.
"Honestly, fundamentally, what I believe is as long as we have good, respect relationship with mutual respect and transparency. If we've got fundamental trust between the team and the driver, it shouldn't be an issue."
"He's a very strong driver, he's very determined. As long as we set the clear rules of engagement before the start of the season, this is the rules we're going to play with and what we expect of the drivers, and of the team, and as long as there's transparency.
"We may have to make a team order or hold position or stop the drivers, which the drivers may or may not agree, but they have to do it then we can discuss it afterwards.
"As long as there's transparency and trust. I really don't believe there will be any issues. All the noise, I am not bothered."
At Haas, Ocon will step into the role of the most experienced driver, a significant shift from his role in his previous teams. The 2025 lineup will see him and Bearman replace Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg under the new leadership of Komatsu, who was promoted from trackside engineering director to team principal, replacing Guenther Steiner before the 2024 F1 season.