Haas Boss Reveals Timeline For 2027 Driver Decision As Ocon Pressure Mounts

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has indicated the American outfit expects to make its 2027 driver decisions somewhere between May and July this year.
“Around now time, like May, June, July,” said Komatsu, when asked for an estimation of when Haas will make a decision regarding 2027. “I think everybody’s looking at next year’s drivers. It’s not just us, everyone.”
Over half the drivers on the current grid have contracts expiring at the end of 2026, including Haas duo Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon.
Haas is expected to be a major player in the forthcoming driver market, with significant questions surrounding what the team decides to do with Ocon’s seat.
The Frenchman fiercely denied “bulls**t” rumours heading into last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix that he was set for an early exit from the team.
However, his performances since joining in 2025 have been frustratingly inconsistent and have fallen well below expectations, putting his seat at genuine risk for 2027.
When Komatsu was pressed further on whether he would retain both drivers if he “decide today”, the team boss declined to give a straight answer.
“I think a question like this is going to create some s**t, right?,” said Komatsu. “Because then people are going to take my word and say, ‘oh, Ayao said if you decide now, you’re going to continue with Esteban, not continue with Esteban’. They take it completely out of context, so I’m not going to answer that question.”
Ocon’s situation was not helped in Montreal, where the 29-year-old finished 14th and outside the points while rookie team-mate Bearman scored a point in tenth place.
That result means Ocon has scored just one point across the opening five grands prix of 2026, leaving him 17 points adrift of Bearman in the intra-team standings.
Ocon pointed to car issues as an explanation for his difficult Canadian Grand Prix, citing persistent front-tyre locking as the primary problem throughout the race.
“It was definitely hard work,” said Ocon. “We had a problem with the car, definitely, in this race. Not one lap where I didn’t manage to not lock, basically, the front tyre.”
“Turn 10 was definitely the big one, but I went off, I think twice in Turn 8 as well during the race. We put the update in qualifying yesterday, we did two laps with it, so it was difficult to really see if everything was working well, but clearly in the race there was a problem with the car.”
“So, we’ll try and fix it for Monaco and come back there better.”
Bearman, by contrast, finished three points ahead of Ocon during his rookie campaign and has increased that gap further in 2026, effectively carrying Haas to seventh in the constructors standings.
One potential replacement option is Ferrari junior Rafael Camara, the reigning F3 champion now competing in F2, though hesitations exist across the paddock about promoting drivers from junior categories.
Reserve driver Jack Doohan has also been mentioned as a possibility, bringing sponsorship money with him, though his difficult spell at Alpine raises questions about his readiness for a competitive seat.
Komatsu, a former engineer who has worked with world champions including Fernando Alonso, will want two equally capable drivers who can push the improved team forward together into 2027.
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