Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman reflect on the winter break, such as it was, and look ahead to the coming season.

Not sure we can consider this an 'off-season', but how was your break, and how does it feel being back at work?
Esteban Ocon: "We're here already speaking in January, so it feels like two seasons in one, but we were able to use the time well. First of all, I finished on December 22, so after testing, we had to do a seat fit with the car plus the simulator. We had our first taste of how the car would feel when we got it to track, and we still have days remaining before testing. I took the time between Christmas and the New Year to really rest.

"I normally do a training camp at this time, but as I was tired from the end of the year, it was more beneficial to restart the training camp early in January. That went very well and I've put on a lot of weight on the muscle side. I lost quite a lot of weight at the end of last year, and I've been able to regain it, so I'm in a pretty good state right now."

Before Christmas you went into the sim for the first time with the 2026 car and completed your seat fit. Without having driven the VF-26 yet, what are your first thoughts knowing the changes?
EO: "It's a very particular way of driving the car. There's going to be a lot more management on the engine side and on the hybrid side. The car itself, you know, felt pretty good. The balance was decent, although of course it was our first taste in the simulator, so we need to see how it is in reality, but the level of grip was good.

"Clearly, the biggest change is from the engine side, and that's going to be the key for us to be prepared. It's an exciting challenge, and it's a different way of driving compared to before. I think we can forget everything that we've learned since go-karts on how to go fast, but it will be interesting to learn a new driving style and hopefully find speed with it."

It felt like at the end of last season you and the team really found your stride and made great improvements. Is that something you've taken into off-season planning?
EO: "Definitely, as that last race was supposed to be where we should have been the eight, nine, or 10 races before. We really found something great in the car in that last race, something that we should have found earlier. It took too long, and unfortunately, it wasn't the season that we were hoping to have, but it's great that we managed to finish that way, as it shows we were capable of doing it. We'll definitely look to carry that into this year and hopefully start as we left off."

2026 brings significant technical changes to the sport. As a driver who's raced in multiple eras, how do you approach testing and the start of the season?
EO: "This is definitely the biggest rule change I've ever faced. The first time I drove a Formula 1 car was in the V8 era, then we went to a hybrid system, where I drove one day in Valencia back then and went to Abu Dhabi for FP1. It was probably a similar change to what we'll face now, but as I said, we need to forget everything that has happened before. We need to learn everything new again, so I think the experience helps to adapt quickly, but we need to adapt everything. All of our senses, how we feel, we'll need to think a lot more while driving about what to do, to go quicker. It's exciting, and it's going to be interesting."

With 22 cars on the grid this year, can you have any expectations this early, and how long into the season do you think we'll be until you can see a true performance order established?
EO: "I'd say by the third or fourth race we'll have some indication, but it won't be the final pecking order because there's going to be a lot of development, especially in this first year. It's definitely worth taking all the points you can as early as you can, but even if we're not exactly where we want to be, there are still things to grab in the middle of the season where lots of teams will be bringing updates. I think right now, we need to focus race to race and get the maximum amount of the car, do good things straight away from Australia, and then we will see how things pan out later."

Entering your second season with TGR Haas F1 Team, what are you most looking forward to in 2026?
EO: "I'm excited about this year. This team is really growing, and this team is learning a lot. Since I arrived, there have been a lot of great things that have happened. We're growing the team and welcoming more partners, and it's very serious how we're going racing into this year. I really hope, and I trust that this team will give us a great tool to be fighting towards the front, and towards the points. And if that's the case, I think for sure we will be dangerous."

How was your break, and how does it feel being back at work?
Oliver Bearman: "It was a very short off-season. I've been told they're not normally like this, but I've only experienced a short one like this so far. It was nice first of all, to get a break after the post-season test, although we still had a lot of things to do like simulator work for this year, and also do seat fit for this year's car as well. The last activity I had was on December 23, but between that, I was also able to have a good amount of time off and spend some time with my family. Most importantly, I could recover and reset my batteries for the new season."

As you said, before Christmas, you went into the sim for the first time with the 2026 car and completed your seat fit. Without having driven the VF-26 yet, what are your first thoughts knowing the changes?
OB: "I feel these changes are the biggest in the history of Formula 1, so with that is a huge deal of excitement for me. I'm heading into a regulation change for the first time in my life, really. Last year was a big step for me, but I think even from the beginning, we knew that if we put the car in the right window, we were still going to be able to fight for points, and we had an idea of the competitiveness of the car.

"That lack of knowledge heading into 2026 is good and bad, as on one side I feel like we can really have an impact straight away, but also it's horrible not knowing. I would like to skip forward six months to see where we are, but I'm going to be giving it everything to make sure that where we are is as high up as possible."

With it only being six weeks since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, what's your physical preparation looked like and how have you had to alter it given the shortened off-season period? Have you been put on a Percy Pig ban?
OB: "Firstly, I spent the whole of December out of the gym, no physical training really, simply trying to relax and spend a bit of time enjoying myself. I think it's really important where you have no races and a bit of time to enjoy yourself. Then, quite quickly, it comes around and you're back to training, and I spent a lot of time in the mountains this winter break. Not only is that really beneficial - the altitude for your health and training - but I was also able to conduct a training camp in the Dolomites, which was incredibly fun and very useful heading into the new season. Maybe a bit of a sugar ban..."

You've shed your F1 rookie status now - so looking back on your debut season after some time off, what's your final evaluation of 2025?
OB: "It was a year where I certainly learned a lot, not only about myself as a person, or as an athlete, but also about Formula 1. I've really increased my knowledge base infinitely, because I've been put in experiences that you just can't learn prior to experiencing them. I've definitely improved a lot in all of those areas and I'm really happy with how the season went, particularly the second-half. You know, I really upped my game, I felt like in the second half of the season, I started to put down some really some results that I was really happy with, and that was critical for me. I'm excited to continue that this year."

With 22 cars on the grid this year, can you have any expectations this early on, and how long into the season do you think we'll be until you can see a true performance order established?
OB: "It's impossible to gauge where we're going to be right now. Everything I'm seeing from the team is positive, but we don't know how we stack up, and we won't know until qualifying in Australia. Even then, I feel like in the first few races reliability is going to be playing a big factor. There are going to be teams and people making mistakes with these new regulations. It's going to be tough to establish a true pecking order."

Now you've got a full season under your belt, what are you most looking forward to in 2026 and what's giving you food for thought?
OB: "I'm most excited to return to all of these circuits, having experienced a race weekend already. I now understand how a track evolves through the weekend, how the tires perform, and what changes may have tripped me up last year. More often than not, last year, I was going to new circuits where my competition had been plenty of times.

"Of course, I'm now going to circuits that I've only driven at once, and where my competition has driven 10 or 11 times, but I feel like even just having one race weekend's worth of experience at a circuit, and the knowledge base that I've built up from a full season of F1 is going to put me in a much better place."

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