Button says Ocon may have thrown away the rest of his F1 career over tyre row

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Button said a tyre disagreement during practice frustrated him and speculated that Ocon may have thrown away the rest of his F1 career. Haas gave no official reason for replacing Ocon for the remainder of the Mexico City weekend.

From the GPBeat newsroomPublished · 02 Nov 2026, 06:41 · 1 min

Jenson Button believes Esteban Ocon may have thrown away the rest of his Formula 1 career over a disagreement about tyres during practice. The 2009 F1 champion said Ocon should be driving hard and showing his ability; in Button’s view, the tyre dispute had left him unable to do so. “That frustrates me,” he said, because it was practice, not qualifying or a race.

Ocon voiced displeasure over team radio in FP2 about Haas’s plan to run him on the medium compound; he wanted soft tyres. On Saturday morning, Haas confirmed Ryo Hirakawa would replace him for the rest of the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend.

Haas gave no official reason for the change, though it clarified that the withdrawal was not due to illness. Ocon also denied reports that he had been involved in a physical altercation with team principal Ayao Komatsu.

Ocon’s departure from Haas had already been announced at the end of September: he was due to leave at the end of the 2026 campaign after a two-year stint with the team.

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