F1 | Esteban Ocon and Haas ready to fight for crucial points in Qatar. Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman head into the Qatar GP focused on scoring crucial points.

Ocon: “We will do our best, the Constructors’ Championship is still highly contested”

Haas eyes crucial points in Qatar

After the third round of the championship in the United States, which also marked Haas’ final home race of the season, the Kannapolis-based team is now ready to enter the decisive phase of the Constructors’ Championship battle. This weekend in Qatar kicks off the penultimate stretch of the calendar, where the final positions in the standings will be determined, with the fight for sixth and seventh still very open and intense.

At present, Racing Bulls holds sixth place with a total of 90 points, closely followed by Haas with 73. On one hand, the American team must push to close the gap on the Faenza-based squad, but at the same time it must defend against Aston Martin and Sauber, who are only one and five points behind, respectively. In the event of major missteps in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, Haas could drop to ninth, second-to-last in the standings, just ahead of Alpine, which is currently on 22 points.

Ollie Bearman aims for consistency

This is a scenario everyone at the team wants to avoid, starting with Oliver Bearman. The English driver, who has experienced a season of highs and lows, comes off five consecutive points finishes, including a standout fourth place in Mexico – his best result in F1 to date. “I’m really excited to go to Qatar,” Oliver Bearman commented on the eve of the race. “I think it’s a track that suits us a bit more than Las Vegas, so I can’t wait for the weekend to start. These cars perform best on a circuit like the Lusail International Circuit. It’s also a Sprint weekend, which means there are two opportunities. I think we can have a strong weekend and we’ll give our all until the end of the season.” – the Ferrari junior pointed out.

Ocon targeting valuable points

Esteban Ocon is also chasing crucial points, having climbed back into the top 10 at the end of the last Las Vegas GP after the McLarens’ disqualification, and ahead of his teammate for the first time since Zandvoort. “This is the second race of the final triple-header, and it will be great to race in Qatar,” Ocon said. “The conditions will be very different from Las Vegas, and since this is a Sprint weekend, we’ll need to make the most of FP1 to be in a strong position for the rest of the weekend. This week we have two opportunities to score points, so we’ll do our best to make that happen in this penultimate round of the season, in what remains a very tight Constructors’ Championship battle.”

With extra prize money and pride on the line, expect Haas to leave nothing on the table under the Lusail floodlights.