Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu took his two drivers to task following the in-team collision at Spa and doesn’t want to see it happen again
Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon broke the golden rule of motorsports last Sunday at Spa: Don’t collide with your teammate! But that’s exactly what happened to both of them on the first lap in Belgium, when they clashed at Turn 12. Worse still: both cars sustained damage.
“That was definitely not ideal,” Ocon laments. “It’s not something we want, because we’re already struggling to find the pace needed to finish in the points.”
According to the Frenchman, the collision was unfortunate: “To be honest, it wasn’t even a real battle,” he says. Ocon was running on the inside line of the turn behind Nico Hülkenberg when Bearman shot past him on the far left.
Bearman reported over the radio that he had gotten stuck in fourth gear. “Oli had gear problems coming out of the turn,” Ocon also explained. “The three of us were driving side by side because we were trying to avoid him. He was a slow-moving obstacle.”
“I was on the inside, Nico was there. Oli was actually a bit further back. I braked early to let Nico through. I was on the inside there. At the last second, I saw Oli coming in there and we collided. It’s really very unfortunate,” he describes.
Haas Haas
Contact between Ollie and Esteban at the start F1 BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/SjtoQ8vVwq
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 20, 2026
During the collision, Bearman’s right rear tire and Ocon’s left front tire made contact, causing a flat tire for both drivers, with Ocon additionally running off into the gravel trap two turns later.
For Haas, the race got off to a rather unfortunate start, of course, and in the end, with finishes in 14th and 17th place, they were far from scoring any points.
As a result, both drivers had to listen to a stern talking-to from Team Principal Ayao Komatsu after the race: “It was a very direct conversation,” says Ocon. “Ayao told us what he wanted to say. It definitely can’t happen again.”
Komatsu himself says that, as usual, he wanted to hear both drivers’ perspectives during the conversation before presenting his own. What is his perspective? “I don’t think I need to share that here,” he waves off. His credo is clear: “We simply have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
“My concern, of course, is this: No matter the reason, it simply must not happen again. Period,” said the Japanese driver.
