Brazil's Rafael Câmara, 21, was announced on Thursday as a race driver for Haas in the 2027 Formula 1 season. The deal runs for more than one year, according to the team, and the Recife-born driver takes the seat of Esteban Ocon, whose departure was made public the previous month.
The decision was settled over the Singapore Grand Prix weekend and ran through direct talks with Ferrari, which supplies Haas's engines and has had Câmara in its driver academy since 2022, when he was 16.
Who Rafael Câmara is
Born in Recife on 5 May 2005, Câmara started karting at six. He won the Brazilian karting championship in 2018, was CIK-FIA OK Junior world runner-up in 2019 and, in 2021, took the WSK Champions Cup and the WSK Super Master Series.
His climb through single-seaters:
- 2022 (F4): runner-up in UAE F4 and third in both Italian and German F4
- 2023 (Formula Regional European Championship): fifth with Prema
- 2024 (Formula Regional European Championship): champion
- 2025 (Formula 3): champion with Trident in his debut season, wrapping up the title before the end of the calendar
- 2026 (Formula 2): championship leader with Invicta
In F2, Câmara goes into the final two rounds of the year seven points clear of Bulgaria's Nikola Tsolov. The title is still open.
The test that counted
Before the announcement, Câmara drove the VF-25, Haas's 2025 car, at the Algarve circuit in Portimão in August, as part of the team's Testing of Previous Car programme. He had also tested for Ferrari.
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu said he was "very excited" about the signing and pointed to the Brazilian's F2 qualifying pace in Monaco and Montreal, as well as the test in Portugal. On the criticism that the team is becoming an appendage of its engine supplier, Komatsu was blunt: "If we hire Rafa, they'll say we've become a Ferrari branch," he told the Brazilian outlet Grande Prêmio, adding that he is "not the least bit worried about that."
Câmara said he would have a lot to learn and looked forward to working closely with the team.
What he will find
Haas sits seventh of the 11 teams in the constructors' championship heading into the United States Grand Prix in Austin. Of the 30 points the team has scored this season, 23 belong to Oliver Bearman — the Briton, also a Ferrari academy graduate, is expected to stay on as Câmara's team-mate in 2027.
The signing closes the door on Australian reserve driver Jack Doohan, who had hoped to return to a race seat.
With Gabriel Bortoleto, who drives for Audi, Brazil is set to have two drivers on the 2027 grid.
With information from Haas, Agência Brasil, Grande Prêmio and Reuters.
