Haas drop Ocon for rest of F1 season as Câmara gets debut

Haas have confirmed that Esteban Ocon will not race for the team again this season, bringing his time with the Formula 1 outfit to an early end.

Rafael Câmara will make his F1 debut alongside Ollie Bearman at the São Paulo Grand Prix on 6–8 November. The 21-year-old Brazilian leads the Formula 2 championship and had already been signed by Haas for 2027. The team has not confirmed who will drive the car at the final three races of 2026.

Haas and Ocon had announced in September that they would part ways at the end of the season. At the time, team principal Ayao Komatsu said they would continue working together through to the final race.

Ocon was replaced by reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa from Saturday onwards at last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix. Hirakawa finished tenth on his F1 debut.

BBC Sport reported that Ocon and Komatsu had fallen out after Friday practice, but said exactly what led to the driver being dropped was unknown. Ocon acknowledged that a difference in viewpoints had led to a discussion and rejected suggestions that physical violence was involved, after French newspaper L’Équipe reported that a meeting may have ended physically.

Komatsu said the decision to remove Ocon for the rest of the season was in the team’s best interests and that their conversations would remain private.

Ocon, who joined Haas in 2025 and won the Hungarian Grand Prix with Alpine in 2021, faces an uncertain future. BBC Sport says he has little prospect of a race seat next year and is seeking a reserve role as he tries to rebuild his career. He has returned from a year off the grid before, spending 2019 as a Mercedes reserve before joining Renault in 2020.