Haas have signed Formula 2 leader Rafael Camara to a multi-year deal from 2027, replacing Esteban Ocon alongside Oliver Bearman. The 21-year-old Brazilian, reigning Formula 3 champion and a Ferrari Driver Academy member, won the seat after a two-day shoot-out in Haas machinery.
Banbury, England: Haas have gone back to the Ferrari pipeline to fill the seat Esteban Ocon will vacate at the end of the season, and they have done it in the week before their home race, the United States Grand Prix. The team confirmed on Thursday that Rafael Camara will race for them from 2027 on a multi-year contract, ending two weeks of speculation that began when Ocon’s exit was announced.
A shoot-out that settled the seat
Camara did not walk into the job on reputation alone. Team principal Ayao Komatsu ran what Formula 1’s website described as an old-fashioned shoot-out, putting four young drivers through two days in Haas cars while he weighed a replacement for Ocon. Camara called it an intense two days at a new track with a new team. Komatsu and the engineers were impressed by how quickly he found performance in tricky conditions and how few mistakes he made. The test, part of Haas’s programme running its previous-year car in Portugal, secured him the seat.
Komatsu called him a “young, amazing talent”. Camara said he was very happy to be joining the team as a Formula 1 driver, and thanked Gene Haas, Komatsu and the Ferrari Driver Academy for their trust.
A champion in the making
The timing is striking because Camara’s season is not finished. He leads the Formula 2 standings by seven points from Red Bull-backed Nikola Tsolov with two rounds left, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, after trailing the leader by 47 points at one stage this year. He drives for Invicta Racing, won last year’s Formula 3 title and has been in the Ferrari academy since 2021.
Ocon out, Bearman still to be confirmed
Ocon, 30, will leave after two seasons with Haas. The team confirmed his departure on 30 September, and the Frenchman said then that it was not the end of his Formula 1 career. He has since described himself as a free agent.
Bearman’s own future is the loose end. Haas have not yet announced him for 2027, though Komatsu has said the delay is a matter of timing and finalising details, and that a formal announcement will come in due course. Haas intend to continue with him. If Bearman stays, the team will field one of the youngest line-ups on the grid, both drivers being Ferrari academy products.
What it means for Haas
Haas buy their engines from Ferrari, and the signing leans further into that partnership. Komatsu rejected the idea that this makes Haas a Ferrari B-team, saying the team chooses its drivers itself and is under no obligation to take anyone from Maranello. The move also gives Formula 1 a second Brazilian in 2027: according to the Associated Press, Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto is staying, which would make it the first year since 2016 with more than one Brazilian on the grid.
The next test for the new partnership comes soon. Camara returns to Formula 2 duty with a title to win, while Haas head into the United States Grand Prix, the race that follows Max Verstappen’s Singapore win, with their 2027 line-up half settled.
