Esteban Ocon in the spotlight as Haas claims 'rules of engagement' between teammates has to be followed

Esteban Ocon is already in the spotlight after the Haas team principal made it clear that there would be clear rules of engagement between the two drivers from day one. The French driver is one of the stronger talents in F1 and has been a consistent performer for different teams he's been a part of.

However, his dynamics with teammates have always been a bit tense. Ocon spent a chunk of the first part of his career with Force India, where his relationship with Sergio Perez was less than cordial. The two drivers made contact on the track on multiple occasions.

At Alpine, Ocon's relationship with Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly was less than ideal. At Haas, he would be teamed up with Ollie Bearman. The young Brit is a Ferrari junior and rated very highly by everyone in the paddock including team principal Ayao Komatsu.

Talking to Autosport, Komatsu is firm that rules of engagement will be in place from the very first race. He said:

“No – rules of engagement has to be totally clear. From day one. So, that will be clarified before the first race. I don't expect any team-mate contacts, DNFs, because of that. But it's good, you have to race hard. Look at last year – Kevin is a hard racer and then Kevin and Nico, the closest we came to an issue, which didn't become an issue, was Austria, right?"

He added:

“But that's partly because we operated in a not perfect manner in terms of pitstop timing. We didn't help ourselves. So, as a team, we shouldn't be creating those messes. But, also, with the understanding of each other as team-mates, the rules of engagement would be perfectly clear.”

Komatsu doesn't see Esteban Ocon's teammate as a rookie

In 2021, Haas fielded two rookies, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, and the two had a somewhat frosty relationship as the two banged wheels a few times. When what happened in the past was put forth to Komatsu, the team principal said that the team was not looking at how things were done with the old regime.

In Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman, the team now has two very good drivers. Talking about Bearman, Komatsu even remarked that he didn't consider the Brit a rookie, as he said:

“No. You look at how we operated last year and then how we can improve as a team, what we did good last year, what we could have improved last year, and then take that learning for this year."

He added:

"So, I don't look that far back to 2021. [And] with Esteban, with Ollie, these are two very, very good drivers. They both got a lot more to prove, yeah… But it's funny about Ollie being a rookie, I don't treat him as a rookie. He can drive a lot, with these young engineers as well, [they will] grow together."

The 2025 F1 season will be a new chapter for Esteban Ocon. It would be interesting to see how he takes on this new challenge and what the future holds for him.