The Frenchman arrived at the Canadian Grand Prix facing widespread claims of a fallout with team principal Ayao Komatsu and even suggestions of a mid-season departure, with some reports even confusing Komatsu with Haas reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa.
When pressed about the rumours, Ocon wasted little time shutting the narrative down.
“Honestly… complete bullshit, to be honest. It’s unbelievable!” Ocon said.
“We were just talking with Ayao just now. The article I saw was calling him ‘Ryo Komatsu’, which is quite funny. And they were even saying that we had, like, a massive dispute in Miami.”
“This is complete nonsense! Honestly, it’s all fabricated and complete bullshit.”
Ocon, who is out of contract with the team at the end of the year, stressed that his relationship with Komatsu remains strong, pointing to their long-standing history as a key reason behind his move to Haas in the first place.
“As I said, I came to this team for the reason that I know Ayao since so long. I’ve got a great relationship with him.
“That’s always been the case and there’s nothing like what people have been saying going on.
“It’s completely not true. I’m fully focused on what I have to do, the job I have to do with the team.
“I’m fully on board with the team for the whole year.”
The 2026 season has not started smoothly for Ocon, who has been outscored by team-mate Ollie Bearman across the opening rounds, but he rejected the idea that this has triggered any internal tension.
Instead, he pointed to circumstance rather than performance as the primary factor behind the points gap.
“For me, it’s very clear, the reasons on why I’m missing a lot of points compared to Ollie in the beginning of the season. The safety cars is the full-stop reason,” he explained.
“The pace has been good, the work has been good.
“For a lot of different reasons I didn’t score as many points as I should have, but the work that we are doing is decent and as long as this is happening, the results will come and that’s the most important thing.”
Despite laughing off the original reports, Ocon admitted the scale of the speculation forced both him and the team to address it internally.
“At the end of the day, I try not to pay attention to that too much, but that became so big for no reason that I had to get a bit involved into it,” he said.
“Obviously it’s been relayed on all the shitty medias that are there on socials.
“And, yeah, it became so big that obviously you can’t just not notice it.”
He also made clear the wider impact such rumours can have beyond the paddock.
“Obviously, I’m human, so it does affect in a way, it does affect my family, it does affect the sponsors that are obviously counting on me,” Ocon added.
“And it’s disappointing to see, you know, that you can make such damage to a reputation of a driver in two or three days, while there’s nothing founded.”
Ocon said he was looking forward to trying out new upgrades the team had brought to Canada this weekend that he hoped would help them bounce back after a difficult race in Miami three weeks ago.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what this is going to bring us and hopefully it’s going to help us to get back into the top 10, because Miami was a little bit difficult for us,” he said.
2026 F1 Canadian Grand Prix – Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more
Discussion about this post