Earlier this season, Haas confirmed that Esteban Ocon’s time with the team would end following the 2026 Formula 1 season, with Rafael Câmara confirmed for his seat next season.
Intrigue around Ocon and that seat has only heightened in the last few hours, with Haas announcing hours before qualifying at the Mexico City Grand Prix that Ocon will not be in the car for the rest of the weekend, with reserve driver Ryō Hirakawa taking the seat for qualifying, and then Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix. Hirakawa, who drove in FP1 on Friday, will now be making his F1 debut:
Friday’s FP1 session in Mexico City was Hirakawa’s third practice outing of the 2026 F1 season.
On the Thursday ahead of the United States Grand Prix in Austin Ocon told the media, including SB Nation, that he should be in F1 next season.
“As I said, I deserve to be here in Formula One. There are many circumstances why I’m not here next year, but they are not the performance reasons,” said Ocon in Austin last week. “I’ve won everything that I’ve in every category I’ve done in go-kart, in Formula Renault, in Formula 3, in GP3 in F1 In all these categories I’ve won races, so just, you know, thinking of a sports perspective, I deserve to be in F1.
“Yeah, I believe that this is not my last year.”
What adds to the speculation about Ocon’s future is how that statement from the team ends: No further statements will be made at this time.
This could certainly be an illness-related absence. Kimi Antonelli and Sergio Pérez missed portions of this week already due to illness and fatigue, and the grind of the F1 season could be taking a toll on Ocon as well.
Although Haas has reportedly denied that it is illness related:
And with Ocon already on his way out at Haas, it is also possible that the team has moved up his departure. Haas currently sits seventh in the F1 Constructors’ Championship standings with 30 points, 39 points behind sixth-place Alpine.
Adam Cooper, a fixture in the paddock, noted that Ocon did have a disagreement with his team over tire usage during FP2 on Friday:
Cooper then clipped part of the exchange between Ocon and his engineer, Laura Müller:
If Haas indeed makes the switch to Câmara, it could put the Brazilian driver in line to make his F1 debut at his home race, next weekend’s São Paulo Grand Prix. Câmara currently leads the F2 Drivers’ Championship standings with 207 points, seven points ahead of second-place Nikola Tsolov, and with F2 not set to race again until Qatar and Abu Dhabi to close out the season — if those races in deed take place — there might be a window to make such a switch.
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