Haas’s work
During the pre-season tests held in Bahrain, Haas was the most surprising team in terms of reliability and laps completed, placing 2nd in the latter case behind the defending champion McLaren. A trend that the American team also maintained in the first two free practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prix.
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Progress
With a total of 113 laps completed between Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman (with the Englishman completing only one less than his teammate), the best performances of both drivers materialized during FP2. In the qualifying simulation, Ocon set the 10th fastest time just ahead of Bearman, who commented on the Melbourne Friday as follows: “It was a positive day, in the sense that we learned a lot and discovered many things on a track very different from what we were used to in Bahrain – he stated – there are many other things to focus on and I think we have made progress, which is the goal. Tonight it will be important to consolidate everything and make sure we take a step forward for tomorrow: this is the goal.”
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Just like in FP2, Ocon set the fastest lap for Haas in FP1 as well, in this case with 11th place (Bearman 14th): “There are many things going on, many details and information to take in. It was interesting to try a different track and see how the car behaves. The balance feels good, there are some small details to fix, but it’s not a problem. We need to optimize the energy delivery because there is a lot to gain, and at the moment it’s not that easy, however, it’s all to play for if we can maximize it with the engineers. So let’s see how it goes tomorrow.”
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