Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu believes building trust with Esteban Ocon and making sure there is no ambiguity about the way the team operates will be central to the Frenchman’s success.

Ocon will join Haas in 2025 after leaving Alpine, where his departure was announced shortly after he was criticized for his role in a collision with teammate Pierre Gasly in the Monaco Grand Prix. Komatsu has partnered Ocon with rookie Ollie Bearman in an all-new Haas line-up next year, and says he has never had any major problems between drivers as long as what is expected of them is made clear beforehand.

“Honestly, I think lots of it comes down to transparency, trust and then clarity of rules of engagement,” Komatsu said. “I think that problems happen when a certain trust is broken between team and driver. 

“Not in my current position but I’ve been doing Formula 1 for a reasonably long time – in my various positions of race engineer, chief race engineer, director of engineering or current position of tam principal – my experience is that as long as I approach them with transparency, no personal agenda, a clear team’s agenda about how we need to go through this race weekend or this year, what’s the objective, what’s the rules of engagement… As long as that’s clarified in advance, as long as the communication is totally transparent then the trust is there.

“When the trust is there then I haven’t actually encountered any issues that got out of hand. So I’m not worried, personally. If I was worried then I wouldn’t have chosen this combination, because it’s my responsibility that we have two drivers that work for the best interests of the team. I have no doubt that Ollie and Esteban will deliver that.”

Komatsu acknowledges the collision with Gasly in Monaco was something he discussed with Ocon before finalizing the Frenchman’s arrival.

“Of course we had to consider it. It’s not like it’s gone unnoticed, it’s a pretty major incident. So I had a conversation with him, and still made that decision. I’m happy with it.”

Komatsu says he was surprised by how invested in the Haas project Ocon was once it was outlined to him as part of negotiations, as he was able to attract a driver from a works’ team.

“He’s only 27, he’s still got lots to prove, and for me he’s still got amazing commitment and work ethic, and when I met him and explained the project to him about where we are and what we’re trying to achieve, I wasn’t trying to convince him, I just told him as it is. And then he just got completely on board, to be honest much more so than I expected.

“He was so engaged, he wanted to be part of this project and he believes in this project. It means quite a lot to me that we have a driver – experienced driver – with a good track record, still young, still has a lot to prove, and he completely 100 percent believes in the project. I am sue he will give us his all, so I am really looking forward to it.”