What had the potential to be one of the most combustible Formula 1 driver pairings of 2025 has avoided exploding so far - partly thanks to a somewhat unlikely blueprint from the driver whose move created the current line-up.
Unfairly gained or not, Esteban Ocon joined Haas with a reputation for having fractious relationships with team-mates, such as at Force India with Sergio Perez (whom he collided with multiple times), and was coming off the back of a five-year Renault/Alpine stint that turned so sour they split one race before the end of their final season together last year and that had featured headline-grabbing tension with team-mates Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly at times.
Plus Ocon was joining Ollie Bearman, Ferrari's leading protege and someone who had already proven himself at Haas during two stand-in outings in 2024, and knew destroying Ocon would go a long way to ensure he followed Charles Leclerc's path from customer team driver to factory Ferrari racer.
But team boss Ayao Komatsu was convinced at the time of signing Ocon that Ocon's way of working wasn't problematic or potentially combustible - something that had concerned other teams in the midfield when deciding their 2025 line-ups.
Ocon and Bearman collided after just 12 rounds - on a wet track in the British Grand Prix, when both were already outside of the points - but Komatsu still feels his optimism has been vindicated.
"When you guys [the media] are asking about this towards the end of last year, I said that I was confident, but I wasn't saying that just to be saying it," Komatsu explained.
"I really believed if we build up a foundation with the trust and respect between the drivers and driver and the team, if the foundation is there [it would be fine]…because we're not going to do everything right every time. Some team orders we're going to issue might be a mistake…but as long as we've got the foundation of trust, transparency and respect, none of it will be escalated.
"If we make mistakes, we're going to talk about it after the race in a completely open manner, like we did in Silverstone, both drivers touching each other, that's not what we wanted to do. But we sat down, we talked about it, we all said our observations, opinions, we said, 'This is what we're going to do in going forward', zero issues.
"So for me, that's the key: just the foundation, just the trust, transparency, respect."
Komatsu pointed to Ocon voluntarily allowing Bearman to pass him in the early stages of the Belgian GP without a team order as evidence of how well they work together.
"Honestly both of them have been great team players," Komatsu said.
"Silverstone was a very specific circumstance where there was only one dry line, so it caused the issue but [it] wasn't intentional.
"I had a very good chat, totally fine but even before that point, every single time we had to issue a team order, every single time, zero question, do it straight away, brilliant.
"And then in Spa, like before the sprint, OK, we are next to together, [Ocon] P5, [Bearman] P7. Then I spoke to both of them before the sprint, what we are going to do, blah, blah, blah. Totally clear so no issue whatsoever.
"Then we had to split the downforce level for the main quali and race because it was uncertain on the weather etc.
"Then again Sunday morning we had a chat because with that much difference in the downforce level at certain point one car is going to be so much quicker than the other, so we sat down three of us talked, totally clear therefore in the race Esteban just said, 'I can let Ollie past now', he didn't even ask."
Ironically, 2023-24 Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg can take some credit for the way Haas has integrated Ocon into the team.
Ironic when you consider it was Hulkenberg choosing to leave Haas in the first place for Audi in April last year, which opened the door for Ocon to find an escape route from his faltering Alpine relationship.
It's the second time their F1 fates have been intertwined with Ocon also the driver who sent Hulkenberg onto the sidelines for 2020 when he took his Renault seat, only for Haas to bring him back into F1 full-time in 2023.
"You can ask Nico, why did he perform so well last year? We really had a very, very good relationship," Komatsu said.
"I've been doing this for how many years now, 22 years [via stints with BAR, Renault/Lotus and Haas], or something like this. But last year, for me, the relationship we could build with Nico, now gave me actually a new baseline.
"This is what we need to achieve with any driver because then we can, that's a performing environment.
"Everyone's a human being. If the driver doesn't trust the team, teams don't trust the driver.
"Let's say this decision is forced upon me, of course, it's not going to be the best in terms of the human being.
"It's not even a racing thing, it's just more fundamental human quality, respect, transparency, honesty, inclusion, all that.
"What we're trying to build inside this team is the same thing. Of course Esteban had the experience of many years in Formula 1. Good and bad. But now I think I feel like we've got this foundation.
"Of course, it's something you've got to build on every single time. It's not like, 'OK, we got there, fine, forget about it'. No, every situation is different, every scenario is different, so you've got to work - both parties - but we are doing that.
"So I think the fundamental trust is there."
As Komatsu hinted at, the game is never fully won there. There have been potentially explosive line-ups before that have started brightly, when both drivers see a future within the team and their motivation to play the team game as its highest.
But the early signs are undeniably encouraging that these two closely matched team-mates - certainly far closer than the 27-8 points discrepancy in Ocon's favour would suggest - are working well together despite being at very different stages of their careers.
