Esteban Ocon will leave Haas at the end of the 2026 season, the team confirmed on Wednesday. The 30-year-old Frenchman joined from Alpine for the 2025 campaign and has made 39 starts for the American team, part of a Formula One career that has thus far lasted for 195 Grands Prix, 490 points, four podiums and one win, which came at the Hungaroring on the 1st of August 2021.
He sits 16th in the drivers’ standings on seven points, whilst his teammate, Oliver Bearman, is 13th on 20 points. Ocon’s own statement insisted this is ‘absolutely not the end’ of his time in F1, which is something that he may well believe, but Aston Martin spent Tuesday making it hard for anyone else to.
Main Image: Eustace Bagge, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Why Did Haas Move On?
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The awkward part of it all is that the man letting him go is the one who rated him the most. Ayao Komatsu engineered Ocon in his first Formula One test, which was for Lotus in 2012, and signed him as the first Grand Prix winner that Haas had ever put in one of their cars. Reports suggest, though, that Komatsu admitted the team ‘expected more’ in 2025, with the qualifying numbers explaining why. Bearman beat him 18-7 on Saturdays last year and leads 13-6 this season by an average of 0.144 seconds.
@chris_gp_racing Haas F1 have just announced they will not be keeping Ocon for 2027. A big shame of course, but who takes his seat? #f1 #formulaone #formula1 #motorsport #f1news ♬ original sound – chris_gp_racing
Ocon’s eighth place in Baku was his first points finish since Monaco back in June. It came too late, given the fact that Komatsu had told him before that weekend that his time was up. Money matters here too. Haas runs on the smallest budget on the grid and doesn’t spend up to the cost cap, so Ferrari’s backing for Rafael Câmara, their junior and the current Formula Two leader, is as important as his lap times. He is the favourite for the seat, although Haas says they have no further driver news to share for now.
Where Does Ocon Go Now?
Aston Martin was the last obvious door for Ocon, but that shut on Tuesday when Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both committed to 2027. What remains is a reserve role, most likely at Mercedes, whose driver programme Ocon still belongs to. Force India moved him aside at the end of 2018 to make room for Stroll, he spent 2019 as Mercedes’ reserve and Renault brought him back for 2020, so this isn’t unchartered territory.
The recent precedent for a comeback isn’t encouraging, however. Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez both sat out a season and returned this year with Cadillac, where they are 22nd and 23rd in the standings without a point between them. Ocon beat Max Verstappen to the European F3 title in 2014 and has won a Grand Prix since, but none of that guarantees him a seat for 2027.