Esteban Ocon's already shaky place at Haas has taken another hit, with reports out of the Miami paddock claiming the Frenchman fell out with team principal Ayao Komatsu over the weekend — and Yuki Tsunoda being openly canvassed as a possible replacement.
The most pointed comments came from Sir Jackie Stewart, speaking to the Paddock Access podcast.
"I heard they had a fall out again this weekend, Esteban Ocon, and also with the team principal, Komatsu," Stewart said. "I don't know. There's something with Esteban Ocon. He has a lot of problems. There was a reason why they kicked him out at Alpine."
The three-time world champion did not stop there, also defending Ocon's underlying ability while questioning whether the current Haas environment is bringing it out of him.
"He is an amazing driver," Stewart said. "He's one of only a couple of drivers who can say they beat Max Verstappen back in Formula 3. He is lightning quick, but for some reason it doesn't work for him at the moment."
The numbers explain the pressure. Ocon's 2025 season ended with 38 points and 15th in the drivers' standings. Four rounds into 2026, he has just one point, while rookie teammate Oliver Bearman has banked 17 and lies inside the top 10 of the championship. Ocon currently sits 16th — a position no driver wanting a contract beyond his current 2026 deal can afford to defend in May.
The replacement chatter has quickly settled on Tsunoda. The Japanese driver is in his second stint at the senior Red Bull team in 2026 but his name is repeatedly floated by paddock sources whenever a midfield seat looks unstable. The logic at Haas is straightforward: Toyota arrived as the team's title sponsor in part to build a pathway for Japanese drivers, and Tsunoda is the only Japanese driver currently with established Formula 1 experience.
There is a clear precedent for Red Bull blocking such a move. When Ayumu Iwasa's representatives previously enquired about Tsunoda being released to a rival, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko bluntly refused, with the line that he would not be "leaving the Red Bull family." That stance has historically been about keeping the Red Bull seat-shuffle options open more than retaining Tsunoda for his own sake.
What has changed in 2026 is the surrounding picture. Honda's relationship with Tsunoda is no longer mission-critical now the manufacturer is preparing its 2026 works split, and Toyota's heavy financial involvement at Haas gives the American team a credible commercial reason to demand a Japanese race seat. If Red Bull's own driver line-up plans firm up around Verstappen and Isack Hadjar — and the team has continued backing Hadjar even after his disastrous Miami weekend — then releasing Tsunoda mid-deal becomes plausible rather than radioactive.
The immediate question is timing. The Ocon situation, as Stewart framed it, is more about chemistry than performance: a personality clash with Komatsu rather than a single incident on track. That kind of breakdown is harder to repair than a points deficit, and Haas is the most upgrade-dependent team on the grid heading into Canada.
For now, Ocon retains his seat for the rest of 2026. But the Miami fallout, the gulf to Bearman in the standings and the convenient match between Toyota's strategy and Tsunoda's profile mean the silly season has effectively opened with a French driver under serious pressure and a Japanese one being talked about as the most natural off-ramp.
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*Originally published on [News Formula 1](https://newsformula.one/article/ocon-komatsu-miami-fallout-tsunoda-haas-replacement-rumour-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
