Overview
- Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu told media in late May that the team expects to finalise its 2027 driver pairing “around May, June, July.”
- Esteban Ocon and Komatsu both forcefully rejected recent reports of a falling-out, with Ocon calling the stories “complete b*******” and Komatsu labelling them “f**king bulls**t gossip.”
- Both Ocon and rookie Ollie Bearman have contracts that run to the end of the season, which makes the 2027 market potentially volatile for their seats.
- Bearman has generally outpaced Ocon on track this season, and commentators say that form plus Bearman’s Ferrari academy links increases speculation about Ferrari interest and Haas’s next move.
- Haas has several options if a seat opens, including promoting reserve driver Jack Doohan or pursuing other linked drivers such as Yuki Tsunoda, and Komatsu has declined to answer hypothetical early decisions to avoid misquotation and reputational harm.