Haas left the chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang empty-handed despite showing enough pace to fight for points, with Oliver Bearman finishing 14th and Esteban Ocon 15th. The biggest talking point was the team’s decision to split its tyre strategies at the start, a call that angered Bearman and was later openly regretted by team principal Ayao Komatsu.
With the circuit still wet, the safer option was to start on Intermediate tyres. Ferrari chose to keep both of its drivers on slicks, a decision that also attracted heavy criticism after the race and became part of the wider debate over the failed Sepang slick strategy. Haas instead decided to split its approach between its two cars.
Oliver Bearman angry over Haas’s split Sepang strategy
That decision produced a strong reaction from Oliver Bearman, who was fitted with Soft tyres despite explicitly wanting to start on Intermediates.
The British driver felt the higher-risk strategy had been unfairly assigned to him even though he was the Haas driver starting further ahead on the grid.
“Putting on the slicks was the wrong choice and it wasn’t my decision,” Oliver Bearman said. “I was firmly convinced we should start on the Intermediates and I was 100% sure we wouldn’t gamble on slicks, but the team decided to fit them at the last minute without me knowing.”
“Obviously it was done to split the strategies. I didn’t agree with it and, with hindsight, I still don’t. Given that I was the car ahead of the two, starting ahead of Esteban, I think it was unfair that I had to take on the riskier strategy.”
“Normally it’s the second car that takes the gamble, while the first one is given the more straightforward strategy. That decision completely destroyed my race: after the first Safety Car I found myself 40 seconds behind the midfield with nothing I could do, and it’s a real shame because the car had the pace and it was a great opportunity to score points.”
Esteban Ocon briefly climbs to sixth on Intermediates
On the other side of the Haas garage, the more conventional Intermediate strategy initially worked extremely well for Esteban Ocon.
The French driver produced an excellent opening phase and climbed as high as sixth place, fighting on equal terms with the Racing Bulls. His race then unravelled during the final third, with the timing of the Safety Car following Alex Albon’s retirement and a mistake entering the pit lane both proving costly.
“We were in sixth position and the car was responding really well,” Esteban Ocon explained. “Obviously we weren’t going to stay there until the end, but the points were well within our reach.”
“Unfortunately, after the stop we started losing ground and then there was a mistake at pit entry. Potentially we could have continued fighting with the Racing Bulls, but that’s not where we finished the race. That’s not how this weekend was supposed to end.”
Ayao Komatsu admits Haas made the wrong call
The disappointing Malaysian result prompted Ayao Komatsu to accept full responsibility for the decisions made on the Haas pit wall. The team principal admitted that splitting the tyre strategies had been a mistake.
“It was a chaotic race and the conditions were really tricky, so we decided to split the risk,” Ayao Komatsu said. “I regret that decision: not splitting the strategy and putting both cars on Intermediates would have been the right thing to do.”
Komatsu also acknowledged that Haas reacted too slowly once it became clear how badly Bearman was being hurt by the slick tyre choice.
“With Ollie, we should have called him into the pits as soon as we realised how much time he was losing. We thought the track would dry much more quickly, but it didn’t.”
Haas also identifies what went wrong for Ocon
Although Ocon’s initial strategy had been the right one, Haas still failed to convert the strong early position into points.
“Esteban’s pace in the wet and in the first stint on Softs against the Racing Bulls was very strong, but between the mistake at pit entry, a pit stop that wasn’t perfect and poor management of the new tyres after the restart, his race was ruined,” Ayao Komatsu added.
“We have to use this weekend as an opportunity to improve and be ready to bounce back in Singapore.”
The result left Haas outside the points despite having shown the pace to fight further up the order. With every midfield result important in the 2026 Formula 1 championship battle, the team will now try to turn the lessons from Sepang into a cleaner execution at the Singapore Grand Prix Sprint weekend.
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