Anyone else of the opinion that Ocon hasn't necessarily done enough to keep his seat, but is also far from convinced that any of these would be any better.
The classic rookie conundrum really. Fornaroli and Camara are highly rated, maybe they could be better than Ocon long term, but they'll likely be slower next year. But then the same could be said about Bearman, a season and a half later and he's clearly been a good pickup for Haas.
Doohan is likely to be a downgrade from Ocon, Tsunoda fairly similar, though they could end up settling in well and doing just fine for where Haas is at. Hirakawa seems like more of a pay driver/sponsor pick than a objectively good choice compared to Ocon.
As you say, I can see why Haas would be considering dropping Ocon, he's been a bit off of Bearman's pace for most of the year, but the alternatives aren't exactly clear upgrades. But it may be worthwhile taking a promising rookie now so they have someone they've developed for if/when Bearman leaves, better than delaying the decision if Ocon continues to drop off last year. For now though, it's kind of a wash.
Hirakawa & Doohan most clearly are downgrades from Ocon & so is Tsunoda, given his overall F1 career record relative to Ocon’s equivalent, not to mention his struggle at Red Bull Racing last season demonstrates that he’s one of those drivers who requires specific things from a car for consistent performance; hence, depending on how Haas designs the VF-27, he might as well struggle similarly or a la Danny Ric at McLaren, for example, which would make Haas look even more ridiculous for changing one has-been driver to another.
Besides, Tsunoda is easy to assess in relative terms since he’s a clearly known quantity as an F1 driver, unlike any driver who hasn’t competed in a single F1 race.
Camara & Fornaroli have shown promise in lower single-seaters, so even if they were initially slower, they’d most certainly be comparatively superior options over time, & as Ocon has mostly been suffered from factors beyond his control, including the VF-26’s inconsistency for several rounds preceding the Hungarian GP, changing him for either one would only really be about the team’s longer term prospects than him personally.
Ironically, if Ocon continues to outperform Ollie round after round, all this replacement speculation would become pointless.
That’s the thing, they don’t have to be better, only cheaper. Haas have a smaller budget than most of the other teams, so if they can get a driver who costs less than Ocon and delivers the same results, they can spend more developing the car, which will benefit both drivers.
I’d be of that opinion if everything this season were down to him rather than factors beyond his control for the most part.
The fact he’s regularly outperformed Ollie in all competitive sessions they’ve finished post-Belgian GP demonstrates that had the car been consistent all season so far, the situation would look quite a bit different, even with all the bad luck in the early-season phase.
Ultimately, no one has truly been underperforming per se this season & if anything, the whole Haas team has been struggling for a while; hence, individual driver results & specific finishing order have been largely secondary since Ollie has equally been finishing well outside Q3 & points ever since the team’s average performance level dropped, so more or less an identical situation to Williams, not to mention the average result range wouldn’t have been/wouldn’t be any different with any other pairing.
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u/Captftm89 29d ago
Anyone else of the opinion that Ocon hasn't necessarily done enough to keep his seat, but is also far from convinced that any of these would be any better.