Team Talk: F1's final week of pre-season testing in Bahrain

Haas – 404 laps

Ayao Komatsu – Team Principal

“The final pre-season test has now concluded, and I have to say it’s been a very productive last test. Every day we’ve learned a significant amount, improving the car a little bit, and both drivers have been working really well with the team – and their feedback is the same. It’s really good to split the day – morning and afternoon – and then confirm certain things, finding and understanding items, to get more performance out of the car. I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made, and our reliability has been great. Of course it hasn’t been problem free, but that’s pre-season testing, and the positive thing is we’re dealing with it in the right manner – understanding performance and actioning what we’ve learned.

“As far as pre-season preparations go, I think it’s been a really good effort from the entire team, so thank you to everyone involved throughout the process. It was a huge effort to go from Fiorano, then running in Barcelona two days later, then from that to come here to Bahrain and now to the final day of testing. We’ve put in a decent performance with the car and completed two race simulations which is a very good effort. The real challenge starts now ahead of the first race in Melbourne, but as a team, especially being the smallest team, I think we can be proud of ourselves and how we got here.”

Esteban Ocon

“I think once again we’ve had no major issues with the car today. We completed the program as well as the test items to continue work on trying to get more front-end with the car – that’s been positive. Ollie’s had a good afternoon which is encouraging, and I hope that the team continues to develop further with everything we’ve learned from these tests.”

Ollie Bearman

“Final day complete in Bahrain and I’m really proud of the hard work that the whole team has put in over pre-season testing. The steps that we’ve made have been super impressive, and today was by far the most productive of the test.”