Jack Doohan has completed his first private test with the Haas Formula 1 team in a bid to return to the grid in 2027.
Doohan piloted last year’s Haas car at Spain’s Jerez circuit, his first run in F1 machinery since competing in last year’s Miami Grand Prix for Alpine. He shared the day with fellow reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa, who is backed by Haas title partner Toyota.
The Australian, son of five-time 500cc motorcycle champion Mick Doohan, joined Haas at the beginning of the year after extricating himself from a dead-end deal at Alpine.
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Though the French-owned team had backed him in Formula 2 and given him his F1 debut, he was turfed from his seat just six rounds into last season in favour of Franco Colapinto, reportedly in part due to the Argentine’s considerable financial backing.
Joining Haas has allowed Doohan to keep a foot in the door at the team most likely to change its line-up next season, with Esteban Ocon out of contract and on the ropes, so far having been beaten by junior teammate Oliver Bearman.
Haas is believed to have assembled a shortlist of potential replacements for Ocon, with Ferrari junior Rafael Câmara and McLaren reserve and reigning Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli having also been run in private tests as part of what looks like an evaluation of the team’s options.
Câmara is said to be at the top of the list, helped by the backing of engine supplier Ferrari, but Haas boss Ayao Komatsu said at the Spanish Grand Prix that his decision would come down to performance alone.
“I’ve always said we take drivers by performance, so performance comes absolutely first,” he said, per RacingNews 365.
“If two drivers have got equal performance, affiliations or the packages they’ve got matter, but we never take somebody who is 0.3s slower but who has got affiliations with Toyota or Ferrari or got 5 million more.
“We’re not going to do that, so it’s all about performance first.”
Despite Ocon’s precarious position and the number of potential replacements — “We’re in a very fortunate situation; there are so many interested drivers,” Komatsu said — the Frenchman is mounting a late fight to hold his seat, having started ahead of Bearman at three of the last four weekends and beating the Englishman twice from the last three races both have finished.
Komatsu warned that a decision shouldn’t be expected imminently.
Writing about his test on social media, Doohan thanked the team for the chance to get back into a Formula 1 cockpit.
“Incredible feeling to be back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car,” he wrote. “Massive thank you to the whole Haas F1 team.”
Doohan had been competing in the European Le Mans Series this year to avoid another campaign on the sidelines, but intriguingly he withdrew from the role with two rounds remaining, with his Nielsen Racing team reporting that a schedule change for the Australian meant he was no longer available to drive.
The final two rounds clash with the Spanish and Singapore grands prix respectively — but the three previous rounds of the campaign also clashed with F1 races.
F1 backs Middle East return in 2027 | 00:54
SHORTER RACES, LONGER WINDOWS AGREED FOR 2027
Formula 1 races will be 15 km shorter next year after F1 and the FIA agreed to 2027 regulation changes in a meeting overnight.
The 5 per cent reduction in race distance is required because of changes to the hybrid engines next season that will see the balance between combustion and electric power shift from nominally 50-50 this year to 53-47 in 2027.
The boost in combustion power will come from an increased fuel flow rate. That in turn means more fuel would have been required to complete the usual 305km race distance, which would have necessitated larger fuel tanks.
However, several teams had already planned on carrying over their 2026 chassis into 2027 on cost grounds, and they had already redirected their budget accordingly.
Because the fuel tank is part of the chassis design, those teams would have found themselves short on fuel at some races next season.
To circumvent the problem stemming from a late agreement to change the engine rules, Formula 1 has agreed to shorten the race distance to ensure no team will be disadvantaged.
It’s unclear whether the shorter race distances will continue beyond 2027, with the combustion-electrical balance set to be further shifted in 2028.
Teams were granted cost cap allowances spread across this and next season to redesign their chassis as part of the engine rule changes.
Formula 1 also agreed to the abolition of the three-hour maximum race window in favour of a stop time dictated by local conditions.
Though all grands prix are time-limited to two hours, an additional hour is allotted to account for red flags or other disruptions.
Formula 1 will do away with that extra hour and instead nominate a “hard stop time” for each grand prix to try to maximise the chance of getting in a complete race distance.
For example, the hard stop time might be sunset for day races but an arbitrary time for a night race given there are no environmental limits under floodlights.
The Australian Grand Prix earlier this year started at 3pm and had to be finished by 6pm, but sunset on that day wasn’t until 7:50pm, meaning there was more than an hour on the table if necessary.
Other tweaks include empowering the race director to extend practice sessions in the event of interruptions.
This will be particularly important given 10 weekends next year will be run to the sprint format, meaning teams and drivers get only one hour of practice for the entire round.
The sport will also remove the requirement for gearbox designs to be locked in for the season, allowing the unit to be upgraded freely during the year. Aston Martin, as one example, has struggled with its first in-house gearbox this year but has had limited scope to change it under the regulations.
Kimi Antonelli claims Spanish Grand Prix | 01:32
F1 MULLING NEW ENGINE CONCESSIONS AS FIA PROMISES TO SAVE ALONSO
Honda could be set for new engine concessions under a reworked catch-up mechanism after FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem declared he would do whatever he could to keep Fernando Alonso in the sport next season.
Alonso is out of contract this season and has yet to commit to another campaign, and though he has said his decision is largely unrelated to Aston Martin-Honda’s dire competitive reality, he has emerged at the centre of a push for further rule changes next season.
Speaking at the Spanish Grand Prix, Ben Sulayem declared that he would do whatever it took to keep the two-time champion in the sport.
“There is no way we can allow Fernando to leave — Alonso, a great champion — just because of the circumstances,” he said, per the BBC.
“That’s not the way to leave the stage. He has to be successful and then he leaves whenever he wants, not because he was forced to leave because of the performance.
“I said to him: ‘I am not going to tell you what we are going to do. Please tell me what you want because you are the driver and come and tell me what do you want us to do to improve these results’.”
It has since been reported that Ben Sulayem was referring to previously unknown talks to alter the concession rules in a bid to give Honda further assistance.
The additional development and upgrade opportunities (ADUO) rules currently in place have been shown to have serious flaws despite all power unit manufacturers agreeing to their implementation.
Engine performance is measured solely by combustion power and excludes all other components, including the deeply influential hybrid elements.
As a result, Red Bull Powertrains has been deemed to have the most powerful engine in the sport and has been denied upgrade concessions.
Mercedes, despite having clearly the best overall power unit, has been granted one concession this and next season, while all other teams have been granted two apiece for this and next year.
That also means that Honda, despite clearly struggling more than any other brand, has been given the same assistance as Ferrari, which was in the title mix for part of the year.
The Race has reported that two avenues are being explored for 2027 rule changes: specific help for Honda and revisions to the ADUO system.
Consideration is being given to the ADUO assessment mechanism measuring more than just combustion power to better reflect true performance.
Audio boss Mattia Binotto has also suggested that on-track results and championship should be taken into account, which could prevent teams from gaming the measurement system.
However, though there appears to be a general acceptance among rivals that having a more competitive Honda will be beneficial for the sport, it’s unclear what concessions they would be willing to make to help the Japanese brand catch up.
“I still have some hope that next year’s rule will still have to be tweaked again, that this is not the final version,” Alonso said at his home race earlier this month.