The decision came together across the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, with Rafael Câmara pulling ahead of Haas reserve Jack Doohan after two private tests in a 2025 car at Portimão and Jerez. An official announcement from Haas is yet to land.

Câmara is 21, Brazilian and a Ferrari Driver Academy member. He leads the 2026 Formula 2 championship with Invicta Racing and arrives with the backing of Brazilian sponsor Transpetro on top of Ferrari’s blessing.

Pairing him with Oliver Bearman, himself a Ferrari academy graduate, gives Haas two Maranello protégés at once. Combined with their shared Ferrari power units, gearboxes and a design-office presence in Italy, the “B-team” framing writes itself in the paddock.

Komatsu: “Whatever we do, there’s different optics”

Ayao Komatsu refused to engage with the premise.

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“Not really, no. You know, whatever we do, there’s different optics,” he told PlanetF1 when the Ferrari junior question was put to him.

“If we chose Hirakawa, I’m sure some people will say they just chose Hirakawa only because he’s a Toyota driver, right? If we take Rafa, you will say ‘Oh, he’s another Ferrari driver’. Then, if we take Leonardo Fornaroli, you’d say, ‘Oh, is Haas now becoming a McLaren B-team, where’s their identity?’”

“So whatever we do, you guys will put out whatever you like. But I’m not worried at all.”

Doohan pushed shootout to the wire

Haas ran four candidates through the TPC programme: Câmara, Doohan, Toyota-backed Ryo Hirakawa and McLaren junior Leonardo Fornaroli. Fornaroli dropped out of contention first; Doohan then pushed the shootout into a genuine two-horse race on test times.

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“Jack is our reserve driver, so there’s no downside, right?” Komatsu said of running the Australian, whose Alpine race seat ended at the 2025 Miami Grand Prix.

Câmara, the reigning Formula 3 champion before stepping up, has three Feature Race wins in 2026 and a seven-point lead over Nikola Tsolov after Baku, according to Grande Prêmio.

Ocon exits after two seasons

Esteban Ocon’s departure was announced on 30 September. The Frenchman spent two years at Haas after five seasons at Renault/Alpine, and was outscored heavily by rookie teammate Bearman across both campaigns.

“This is absolutely not the end of my Formula 1 career,” Ocon said as Haas confirmed his exit.

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A reserve role at Mercedes, Racing Bulls, Audi or Aston Martin is the likeliest route back onto the grid for 2027, with no race seat yet lined up.

The paddock expectation in Singapore was that the Haas announcement would follow in the days after the race. It has not come yet.

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