Haas mid-season review: All-new lineup, same old inconsistency

As we head into the second half of the 2025 Formula One season after a lengthy summer break, our F1 writers take you through the state of play with each team on the grid.

Haas is one of two teams this year with a completely different driver lineup compared to 2024 | Credit: Formula One

Compared to their 27 points this time last year, Haas should be pleased with a sum of 35 heading into the summer break. 

However, putting this into the context of the Constructors’ standings, the American team has clearly dropped the ball in the development race against fellow competitors, slipping down from seventh to ninth in the space of a year. 

While rival mid-field teams like Williams and now Sauber are ahead of the curve, Haas is still struggling to find stability with their aerodynamics package, four years into the current regulations.

Fielding an all new lineup in Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman, Haas was bringing the first Grand Prix-winning driver to race for the team plus a hotshot rookie into the fold to lead their 2025 campaign.

Now in their second season without long-time boss Guenther Steiner, Haas has been under the steady leadership of Ayao Komatsu, who took the American team to its second-best Constructors’ finish last year after securing seventh in the standings.

However, even this stability in management has failed to yield noteworthy results for Haas in 14 rounds.

While the goal in 2025 would’ve been to build upon last year’s result and aim for sixth or higher in the standings, the team has been weighed down by inconsistency and trouble with the car concept that offers a very slim optimal operating window.

Ayao Komatsu enters his second year as Haas' Team Principal, aiming to build upon the team's result last year | Credit: Formula One

On the drivers’ side, Ocon has unsurprisingly taken the reins as Haas’ number one, outperforming Bearman in the head-to-head data. Leading the rookie by 8-6 and 9-5 in the Qualifying and Grand Prix comparisons respectively, Ocon’s total of 27 points places him 10th in the Drivers’ Championship while Bearman occupies the rear end of the table in 19th.

For a driver jumping the sinking ship of Alpine to join Haas this year, Ocon would undoubtedly be pleased with his stint at the American outfit so far, despite the rocky season they’re enduring. Although he’s far from satisfied with their results, he might be taking solace in how things have worked out relatively better for him with Haas as opposed to staying at Alpine, currently 10th in the standings.   

The Frenchman has recorded five Grand Prix top 10s so far, with his last scoring round being Austria. At this event, he put up a valiant drive from 17th on the grid to snatch the final point ahead of Bearman, who was able to hold up the cars behind the pair to seal Ocon’s 10th place.

Bearman meanwhile has had a chastening 2025 run after his electric F1 debut last year in Jeddah with Ferrari, stepping in for Carlos Sainz and scoring his first F1 points in rosso corsa.

Securing a hotly anticipated permanent seat in F1 and riding into the season on lofty expectations that matched those of Formula 2 teammate Kimi Antonelli, Bearman initially showed flashes of progress with a hat-trick points run from China to Bahrain. 

However, frustratingly for the rookie, this early season spark seems to have fizzled out as Bahrain still remains the last time he scored points on a Sunday. His last five races have been marked by a near record-breaking run of four 11th place finishes in a row terminated by a retirement in Hungary due to aerodynamics damage.

Ollie Bearman has endured a tougher start to his rookie season than he would have liked | Credit: Formula One

Evidently, both Ocon and Bearman have struggled to bag points in recent races courtesy of strategy blunders, a general lack of pace and engine issues.   

As the team struggles to find an answer to their upsetting performance while rival teams progress in leaps and bounds, Haas heads into the summer break with much to reflect upon and hopes of a miraculous mid-season turnaround. 

High point

The team’s standout weekend in 14 rounds was all the way back in China, with a pleasantly surprising double points finish – Ocon in fifth to boot following Ferrari’s double disqualification. 

At the second round, both drivers qualified outside the top 10 but finished P7 and P10 on the road – Ocon putting up a strong defence to maintain his position and Bearman on the alternate strategy climbing up from 17th after nursing the hard compound for 27 laps. 

As noted above, the cherry on top of an already jubilant weekend came post-race. With both drivers being promoted – Bearman to eighth – the pair collected a points haul that currently amounts to 40% of their standings tally.

Aside from on-track results, another special moment in Haas’ 2025 campaign was the appointment of Laura Müller as Ocon’s race engineer, who made history by becoming the first full-time female race engineer in F1. Apart from marking a landmark moment in motorsport, Müller’s senior role at Haas has also been pivotal in supporting Ocon’s familiarisation with a new team environment. 

Low point

Wading through more lows than highs this year, as the ninth place in the standings indicates, the absolute nadir of Haas’ 2025 season thus far was at the British Grand Prix.

The exciting scene of Bearman’s maiden home Grand Prix quickly turned sour as the Briton was slammed with a punishing 10-place grid penalty (his second of the season following Monaco) after an innocuous Free Practice incident that saw him hit the pit lane wall on entry under red flag conditions.

And just like that, his entire weekend came undone, which must have stung even more considering his eighth place qualifying position – a career-best for Bearman.

Bearman crashed while entering the pit lane under red flag conditions during FP3 | Credit: Formula One

It was downhill from thereon, including for Ocon, with both drivers having an eventful race punctuated by collisions and a strategy misfires in the wet conditions.

Even after Ocon’s early collision with Liam Lawson and Bearman’s spin owing to a tap from Tsunoda, Haas’ troubles were far from over.

In the final laps, Ocon and Bearman made contact, executing a synchronised spin that effectively paints the picture of their season so far – the team dynamics are so far healthy and in-sync with Komatsu at the helm, but they’re completely off-track on the execution front.

The only silver lining in what was a nightmare weekend from Friday to Sunday was Bearman’s defiant drive from 18th to 11th, making him the only rookie to see the flag in a race that rewarded driver skill far more than outright pace. 

Looking ahead

All is not lost for the youngest team on the grid, and a resurgence in form cannot be overlooked given the capricious nature of the mid-field Constructors’ battle which is likely to be undecided until the very last race.

Just 10 points off Racing Bulls in eighth, the upcoming rounds will be crucial for Haas to polish their overall performance and establish themselves as a key threat in the mid-field.

Apart from extracting reliable performance from the car, race-defining areas like strategy also need heavy work.

Too many slips in this department have cost the team potential points finishes, like at the Belgian Grand Prix when Ocon was called into the pits alarmingly late and was then fitted with seven-lap old mediums when a new set was readily available.

A strategy blunder in Spa cost Haas valuable points | Credit: Formula One

What could’ve been an easy top 10, given that Ocon started 11th, became a lowly 15th place after this egregious error from the team. The result also broke Ocon’s streak of scoring points in Spa every year since his debut in 2016.

In any case, Haas has done well to manage two completely new drivers aboard the team. Both drivers have shown promising potential in the VF-25, as well as the ability to pick up the pieces when the other is having an off weekend.

The 2025 season has been a good opportunity for Haas to recalibrate itself ahead of the new regulations, with a raft of trackside personnel changes under Komatsu’s watch that aim to strengthen Haas’ foundation heading into 2026.

While the race to develop a 2026 challenger has no doubt already started, Haas can still reverse their fortunes this season and they certainly don’t look keen on writing this year off just yet.