Esteban Ocon brushes aside Haas speculation as replacement talk continues

Karun Chandhok claims Esteban Ocon has to be feeling uncertain about his Haas future, and has suggested Ferrari junior Rafael Câmara as his replacement.

Ocon, however, has brushed aside the speculation, adamant that everyone at Haas knows the reason why his teammate Oliver Bearman is ahead of him in the season’s stats.

Karun Chandhok suggests Rafael Câmara for Haas seat

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Speculation about Ocon’s future began last month after a Brazilian journalist’s post on social media was mistranslated and led to claims that Ocon had fallen out with his team principal Ayao Komatsu.

That in turn led to suggestions that Ocon might not finish the season with Haas.

Komatsu blasted that as “bulls**t”.

“Honestly, I don’t know where that story came from, no idea,” he said. “This Brazilian journalist was quoted, but I have no idea. No foundation whatsoever, absolute bulls**t.”

But while sources indicated to PlanetF1.com that there is no truth to the allegations, Formula 1’s rumour mill continued to rumble on.

Ocon trails Bearman in the season’s stats, three points to 18, while he is behind his teammate in the qualifying head-to-head.

Oliver Bearman v Esteban Ocon: Haas F1 2026 scores

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F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates

“He will be feeling twitchy, won’t he?” former F1 driver Karun Chandhok told Sky Sports’ F1 Show.

“He’s now down 8-3 in qualifying across all the situations that you can compare them. That’s not a good score. Even at the weekend, he was a long way behind in the race.”

But rather than put former Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda forward for the seat, as has been bandied about in the rumours, Chandhok would like Haas to promote Ferrari junior Rafael Câmara.

The 21-year-old is running in the Formula 2 championship with Invicta Racing and secured his maiden F2 feature race win in Barcelona. He’s third in the standings, 22 points behind Alpine junior Gabriele Minì.

“Is [Tsunoda] an upgrade?” Chandhok continued.

“I would go for Câmara. If they were going to change it, go for a young hotshot.

“Bearman’s got experience now. By the time we get to next season, he would be in his third year. They’ve got an experienced number one driver.

“If Ollie does get promoted down the line, they’ve got Câmara to step into that role.”

Esteban Ocon brushes aside Haas speculation

Despite the ongoing speculation, Ocon says he’s not worried as the team knows why there’s a disparity in the drivers’ results.

Ocon is out of contract with Haas at the end of this season.

Asked about next year, the Frenchman told PlanetF1.com and other media in Austria: “I don’t know. We are into race, what, seven, eight?”

He continued: “I need to focus on the job. As a driver, the performance on track is what I need to be taking care of.

“The rest is something that goes with it.

“Obviously, we have bigger problems with the car at the moment than that. So this is what we need to sort out first. If you sort out the car issues and get more performance out of it, everything will go easier, obviously.

“But you know, I feel confident about everything.

“There will always be talks when people look at the picture, [but] when you look deep inside, and knowing why I don’t have many points this year, and all of these things, well it gets more clear.

“The real reasons we know deep inside, the team and the people close around, so that’s the most important.

“We know that we are doing the right work. Now, it just needs to pay off.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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