Haas to decide 2027 driver line-up by mid-summer with Ocon's seat under threat

Haas expects to finalise its 2027 driver line-up between May and July, team principal Ayao Komatsu has confirmed, with Esteban Ocon’s future at the American squad increasingly uncertain after two underwhelming seasons alongside Oliver Bearman.

“Around now time, like May, June, July,” Komatsu said when asked when Haas would make its call on 2027. “I think everybody’s looking at next year’s drivers. It’s not just us, everyone.”

The timing places Haas among a crowded field of teams entering the market simultaneously. Both Ocon and Bearman are out of contract at the end of 2026, and with over half the grid in the same position, the forthcoming silly season is shaping up to be one of the more consequential in recent memory.

Ocon’s situation is the focal point of the intrigue. The Frenchman fiercely denied “bullshit” rumours ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix that he was facing an early exit, but his performances since joining from Alpine in 2025 have fallen well short of what Haas anticipated when they signed him. At the time, the deal was considered a coup — Ocon brought more than 100 grand prix starts, a race victory, and four podiums to a team still establishing itself as a midfield contender.

Instead, Bearman — then a rookie — finished three championship points ahead of Ocon in 2025. That gap has widened in 2026, inverting the dynamic Haas had hoped for: rather than Ocon serving as the experienced benchmark against which Bearman could develop, the 21-year-old Briton has consistently been the faster of the two.

Ocon attributed some of his 2025 struggles to braking issues with the VF-25, but that explanation is difficult to sustain given Bearman was operating the same machinery to greater effect. Unless Ferrari, which oversaw Bearman’s development and gave him a one-off race debut in 2024, makes an unexpected move to reclaim its academy graduate, Bearman appears certain to remain at Haas.

The broader context for the 2027 market is a Formula 1 landscape resetting after two years of significant regulatory change. The 2025 season saw eight teams alter their driver pairings — triggered in large part by Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari — before relative stability returned in 2026 as teams sought continuity heading into the new rules cycle. Now, with a season of data under the current regulations, teams are better placed to assess which drivers are genuinely performing and which are flattered or hampered by their machinery.

For Haas, those numbers point in one direction. Komatsu’s mid-year timeline suggests the team will not wait long before acting on what the data is telling them.