Haas’s struggles continued during qualifying for the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix, despite Esteban Ocon progressing to Q2 at the Hungaroring. The American team once again attempted to extract everything possible from a car that now appears to have reached its technical limit, with the French driver admitting there was simply no more performance available from the VF-26.
The result confirmed an increasingly clear trend for Haas. The team remains firmly towards the back of the Formula 1 grid, ahead only of Cadillac and now under mounting pressure from an Aston Martin operation that appears to have finally found the right development direction with its latest upgrade package. Indeed, the progress of the Aston Martin AMR26 has placed Haas on alert as the midfield hierarchy begins to shift.
Esteban Ocon says Haas extracted everything from the VF-26
Esteban Ocon’s place in Q2 should not disguise the reality of Haas’s current performance level. The French driver benefited primarily from Williams’ deepening crisis, with the British team appearing to have taken a significant step backwards, while 15th place accurately reflected the VF-26’s genuine competitiveness.
Esteban Ocon did not attempt to hide the situation, explaining that there was simply no additional potential to extract from the car during Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying.
“We got the maximum out of the package we had available,” Esteban Ocon explained. “The car ahead of us was half a second faster, so there was no possibility of doing any better. Now we need to find performance because that is what we are missing.”
His assessment perfectly captured Haas’s current position. The team has finally managed to eliminate some of the anomalies that compromised its previous race weekends, but the VF-26 continues to lack outright performance.
Ayao Komatsu admits P15 reflects Haas’s true pace
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu offered a similar assessment. Although the consistency of Esteban Ocon’s car between FP1 and qualifying represented a small operational improvement, the final result was simply a reflection of the car’s genuine performance.
“P15 represents the performance we have today,” Ayao Komatsu admitted. “And that is exactly what we need to improve.”
Haas’s deficit was exposed during the same session in which Lando Norris secured Hungarian Grand Prix pole position for McLaren. While the leading teams fought over fractions of a second, Esteban Ocon faced a half-second gap to the car immediately ahead of him.
Oliver Bearman struggles with persistent balance problem
The situation on the other side of the Haas garage was even more concerning. Oliver Bearman returned to the VF-26 after giving up his seat during FP1, but he was never able to build confidence in the car’s balance and was eliminated in Q1.
Ayao Komatsu openly described it as a familiar balance problem. The characteristic continues to prevent the drivers from exploiting the car’s potential, and Haas has still not managed to find a solution.
Although Esteban Ocon’s Q2 appearance offered a superficially encouraging result, both his comments and Ayao Komatsu’s analysis made the underlying situation clear. Haas has improved the consistency of its race-weekend execution, but unless the team can unlock more fundamental performance and resolve the VF-26’s persistent balance limitations, its crisis at the back of the Formula 1 grid is likely to continue.
Leave a Reply