Esteban Ocon, for a handful of reasons, tends to have his results fly under the radar. He's paired in 2025 with a team that also tends to be a bit quiet at times in Haas.
But Ocon has seen an impressive set of finishes, squished in with some struggles in 2025.
Ocon's stats
- Standings Position: 10th
- Points: 27
- Best Finish: 5th
- Best Qualifying Position: 8th
- Head-to-head race finishes (vs. Bearman): 9-5
- Head-to-head qualifying: 8-6
- Head-to-head points: 27-8
Ocon can pull solid results — but how much is the equipment holding him back?
Ocon's 2025 has truly been a bit all over the place. He's had some huge moments that really distill the skill he brings to the American team, followed by some lulls.
It took until just week 2 for Ocon to post Haas' best finish since the 2022 season opener. But that finish was sandwiched by weekends where he struggled mightily in Australia and Japan, before Ocon posted four points in Bahrain.
Consistency is difficulty when you're driving for a midfield team, especially one towards the back of the overall running order. So the fact that Ocon has been able to net as many points finishes as he has is impressive in its own right. He has been good for a point or more in every 2-to-4 races.
But he does enter the break with his toughest stretch so far. Finishes of 13th, 15th and 16th at the previous three races, two of which where teammate Ollie Bearman outperformed him. The only bright spot was a well deserved P5 in the Belgian sprint, but those results are lost in the memories of just about everyone, probably including Ocon himself.
We'll never truly know just how bad the equipment is at Haas in comparison to the results the team gets. The car has seemingly gone completely nowhere on many occasions, only for the team to score points days later.
With 35 points, Haas is on a similar trajectory in points from last year (58), but they currently sit in ninth on the constructors' table. But Ocon has outdone his 2024 points total already (23) with many more point-scoring races to show for it (18 of Ocon's 23 points came from his Brazil podium).
Where does Ocon go from here?
Ocon, now racing for his fourth F1 team, is not one of the premiere names in the sport. He's never driven for a top team, meaning his chances at podiums and wins are difficult to find.
But with a solid batch of points in year one at a team that has always struggled to score many of those, Ocon should get credit for clearly being an under-the-radar high-level driver in F1.
That said, he surely will be looking for better qualifying efforts in the latter half of the season. Bearman, despite his much lower level of grand prix results, has kept himself somewhat close in the head-to-head qualifying results. And since the beginning of June, Bearman actually holds a 4-2 qualifying advantage.
For Ocon, it will be interesting to see if he can come into Zandvoort and avoid his first streak of four grands prix without a point since coming over to Haas. He's scored three of four times in Holland, so the reset and setting could play well for a good second half for Esteban.