HALF TERM REPORT: Haas’ best and worst moments from 2025 so far and driver head-to-heads

After a respectable P7 finish in 2024, Haas currently hold ninth place in the Teams’ Championship at the midway point of 2025, a season in which the team have fielded an all-new line-up in Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman. Amid a tight midfield battle, can the American outfit find more consistency during the remainder of the campaign? Let’s take a look at their half term report…

Best finish

Esteban Ocon – 5th in China

Following a challenging weekend at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix – in which the team qualified at the back of the grid – Haas bounced back in style one week later in China, with the squad scoring their first double points result of the year.

Ocon and Bearman initially crossed the line in seventh and 10th respectively but were later promoted by two positions each following the disqualifications of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, handing them a P5 and a P8.

While other points finishes have followed, the squad have yet to match that fifth place achieved by Ocon, having struggled to find a consistent level of performance during the first half of the season.

Qualifying head-to-head

Ocon 8-6 Bearman

The more experienced Ocon has beaten his rookie team mate in Qualifying on eight occasions, which included a season-best P8 on the grid at Monaco.

This position was initially matched by Bearman at Silverstone, but a 10-place penalty for an FP3 red flag infringement dropped the Briton down to P18, a punishment that he also received during the Monaco weekend.

Race head-to-head

Ocon 9-5 Bearman

Ocon has also just had the edge over Bearman in race trim, the Frenchman crossing the line ahead at nine Grands Prix. Bearman, however, faced slightly worse luck in terms of retirements, having twice recorded a DNF owing to a mechanical issue in comparison to only one non-finish for Ocon.

Of the team’s current total of 35 points, Ocon is responsible for 27, putting him in 10th place of the Drivers’ Standings, while Bearman has scored eight points in 19th place.

Best moment

That aforementioned double points haul in Shanghai was a promising moment for the team, with it highlighting that there was not only pace to unlock in the VF-25 but that they could also master solid strategy calls, after an alternate plan for Bearman saw him climb up from P17 on the grid.

Given the troubles of Australia, Ocon hailed the outcome one week on as an “amazing turnaround”, while Bearman admitted that he felt “really proud” of the team for taking such a step forwards.

Other highlights during the season included further double points finishes, including at Round 4 in Bahrain as well as in the Sprint at the Belgian Grand Prix more recently.

Worst moment

Haas experienced a tricky run of point-less races between Saudi Arabia and Imola, while the squad also endured a challenging moment in the British Grand Prix when Ocon and Bearman collided, on a day where Ocon felt that both drivers “deserved to be in the points”.

But perhaps their toughest moment of all was facing such a nightmarish start straight out of the blocks in Australia, with Bearman acknowledging that not being in the fight for points had come as an “unwelcome surprise”.

It had also proved to be a shock to Team Principal Ayao Komatsu, who later conceded that he “felt sick” at how far off the pace the car was, leading to a concerted effort to fix the issue as quickly as possible.

Going forward

While there have been positive moments for Haas, their form has been somewhat unpredictable from one weekend to the next – and, given how fine the margins are in the midfield, developing more consistency will be a key aim going forwards if they are to make gains from P9.

As Ocon summarised ahead of the summer break: “Looking at this first half, I think there are some positives, definitely. We’ve scored a decent amount of points, but we are not consistent enough and where we want to be every single time. We’ll give it everything for the next half.

“If you look at Spa, we had mega performance, it was a great weekend. We are not there every single weekend, and this is where we need to get the consistency together. We are working on that. I have full trust behind the team and it’s far from over this season.”

Komatsu has stated that the team’s long-term goal is to reach the podium, which would suggest that – in the short-term – they will be hoping to move nearer to the head of the midfield and take further steps towards realising that ambition.