Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has delivered an extraordinary rebuke of online rumours suggesting Esteban Ocon is set to be replaced, calling the stories “absolute bullshit” and questioning whether those responsible can even be considered journalists.
Speaking to media at the Canadian Grand Prix on Thursday, Komatsu addressed speculation that had spread across social media and smaller outlets claiming he and Ocon had clashed after the Miami Grand Prix, with the French driver supposedly set to lose his seat as a result.
Both driver and team principal flatly denied the rumours. Ocon earlier in the day called the stories “complete bullshit”, while Komatsu went further in a fiery tirade that laid bare his frustration with what he described as fabricated gossip masquerading as journalism.
“No foundation whatsoever”
“I honestly don’t know where the story came from,” Komatsu said. “I don’t know if this journalist was quoted, but I have no idea. No foundation whatsoever. Absolute bullshit.”
“So, if somebody wants to write that kind of bullshit, feel free, but fucking hell, is that journalism? I have no idea. It’s terrible. What are they trying to achieve? It’s crazy. No foundation whatsoever. I don’t know, has any of you heard me saying anything like that? It’s incredible.”
Komatsu said he spoke to Ocon on Thursday morning to address the rumours, but insisted there was nothing for the team to defend. He specifically refuted claims that he had any disagreement with Ocon in Miami.
“Part of it is that apparently I had some issue with Esteban in Miami, right? Where’s that come from? I didn’t even have a single argument with Esteban in Miami. It’s just amazing how completely this bullshit gets smoked up,” he said.
“And then, because nobody checks the source, then everybody just lies on top of it. How is that journalism? It’s just fucking bullshit gossip.”
Lost in translation
Komatsu revealed he first became aware of the rumours through a Japanese website, which falsely suggested he was interested in hiring Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda. Other reports mentioned reserve driver Jack Doohan as a potential replacement for Ocon.
The team principal theorised that mistranslations may have contributed to the spread of misinformation, noting that Japanese outlets often attempt to create stories linking Tsunoda to various teams without any factual basis.
“This morning we were just smiling and talking about what the fuck is that about? So I said I’m going to just completely clarify this to everyone, because it’s absolute, utter shite. Total bullshit,” Komatsu said.
“But it’s just something we don’t need. And then I think it gets written in Japanese. Somebody sent it to me, this Japanese article. This journalist was quoted. But I haven’t actually read what this journalist wrote. So Japanese translation, how inaccurate is it? I have no idea. And also lots of Japanese sites, they really want to create shit about I like to take Yuki or something. That’s got zero foundation so I don’t take any notice.”
“Are you not embarrassed?”
Komatsu reserved particular criticism for French media outlets that amplified the rumours, questioning why journalists would target their own countryman with unfounded speculation.
“But then some French journalist picks it up. It’s like fucking hell, if you’re a French journalist, what are you trying to do to your country’s driver, by picking up stories like trying to get some traction? Are you trying to put your French driver down? It’s like, what is the purpose?”
The Japanese engineer, who took charge of Haas at the start of 2024, said the episode reflects poorly on modern standards of journalism and causes unnecessary stress for drivers and their management.
“A complete waste of time. Esteban gets worried, the manager gets worried. But Esteban knows that we haven’t had any argument in Miami, at least a specific thing,” Komatsu said.
“It’s just bullshit. I don’t know, if you write some story, you check your source, don’t you? Honestly, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a journalist, I wanted to be an investigative journalist. So when I read things [like this] it’s like ‘fucking hell, are you not embarrassed about what you’re writing?’ And then by writing bullshit like this with no foundation, you lose credibility.”
“Any media that runs that kind of bullshit story loses credibility. In my mind anyway. It’s not even like twisting my words, there’s zero facts. It’s nothing to do with what I said, because I didn’t say any of that. It’s incredible.”
Haas sits eighth in the constructors’ championship heading into this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, with Ocon having scored the team’s only points so far this season—a ninth-place finish in Bahrain.