Esteban Ocon has confirmed he’ll exit the Haas Formula 1 team at the end of the 2026 season, with Ferrari’s F2 points leader Rafael Camara set to replace him.
Ocon signed a two-year deal with Haas in 2025 after five seasons with Renault/Alpine, but it hasn’t delivered the expected results.
Last winter, Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu even admitted he “expected more” from Ocon in 2025, as rookie team-mate Ollie Bearman established himself as the stronger Haas driver in the second half of the year.
Things haven’t improved enough in 2026 to convince Haas to keep Ocon beyond the end of his current deal.
The team has been testing drivers to replace him as part of its Testing of Previous Cars programme, which lets it use a 2025 Haas in private tests.
Those drivers include Camara, McLaren reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli, Toyota’s Ryo Hirakawa and ex-Alpine F1 driver Jack Doohan.
Ultimately, Haas decided to drop Ocon, with Camara highly likely to replace him.
Ocon confirmed his own exit from the team on the Wednesday before the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
"My time with Haas F1 Team will come to an end at the end of the 2026 season," Ocon wrote.
"I leave this project with my head held high and proud of my performances in what were not always the easiest of circumstances for various reasons and factors outside of my control.
"My immediate focus is the next race weekend. I will continue to work hard with the team, maximise every opportunity, and keep extracting every bit of performance from the car. There are still many races to go this season and, as always, I will give it my everything behind the wheel for myself and for my team.
"I am still motivated. I am still hungry. This is absolutely not the end of my Formula 1 career."
The circumstances Ocon refers to are likely Haas's struggles with inconsistent parts that have left it struggling to run two cars optimally for a lot of the season, with both Ocon and Bearman affected on different weekends.
Haas released its own statement thanking Ocon for his services, with Komatsu saying "“I’d like to thank Esteban for everything he’s contributed to the team since joining us in 2025.
"His professionalism and commitment have proved valuable as we continue to grow as an organisation. Together this year we tackled the challenge of a major regulation change, where Esteban’s driving experience and inputs were significant as we’ve worked hard to develop the VF-26 across the season.
"There’s still plenty of racing ahead, and our focus remains on working together to maximise every opportunity through to the final race of the year.”
Ocon is currently 16th in the drivers’ championship, having led Haas’s first double points finish of the season in Baku.
With Aston Martin confirming Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll for 2027, it leaves Ocon with no race seat options for 2027, as only Mercedes and Racing Bulls haven’t confirmed their line-ups, and Ocon is a contender for neither.
The Race understands Ocon will most likely look for an F1 reserve role in 2027, with the aim of fighting back onto the grid for 2028.
He managed to do that in 2019 when he was left on the sidelines after being replaced by Lance Stroll at Racing Point, returning to F1 with Renault one year later via a reserve role with Mercedes.
Ocon made his F1 debut partway through the 2016 season for Manor, having beaten Max Verstappen to the Formula 3 title in 2014 and won the GP3 (now Formula 3) championship one year later.
from The Race https://ift.tt/xmGVkR9
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