{"id":929873,"date":"2026-10-16T05:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929873\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T05:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T05:00:15","slug":"speed-over-experience-what-haas-sees-in-rafael-camara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929873\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed over experience: what Haas sees in Rafael C\u00e2mara"},"content":{"rendered":"

Haas<\/a>\u2018s statement on Esteban Ocon<\/a>\u2018s departure, announced at the end of September by the American Formula 1<\/a> team, was pretty specific in what it didn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n

Team boss Ayao Komatsu credited the Frenchman\u2019s \u201cdriving experience and inputs\u201d as significant in developing this year\u2019s VF-26 through a major regulation change, implying that Ocon\u2019s job of being the experienced benchmark was complete, and his services were no longer needed<\/p>\n

Yet Haas<\/a> is letting him go for Rafael C\u00e2mara, a rookie who has been proving himself in Formula 2 and in Testing of Previous Cars programmes.<\/p>\n

The choice show which part of the driver checklist Haas thinks it was missing with Ocon: speed. And it showed in the comments that Komatsu released when he announced the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn his rookie season in Formula 2, the speed he\u2019s shown in some very difficult moments, like qualifying in Monaco and Montreal<\/a> \u2013 that all goes to show the potential Rafa has,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Who is Rafael C\u00e2mara?<\/p>\n

C\u00e2mara was born in Recife on 5 May 2005. He began karting before he was 10 and quickly made an impression, progressing through the junior categories before winning a round of the WSK Super Master Series in 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Rafael<\/p>\n

C\u00e2mara made his single-seaters debut in F4 in 2022<\/p>\n

\n Ferrari\n <\/p>\n

In February 2021 at Adria he won the WSK Champions Cup before going on to take the WSK Super Master Series title, beating current F1 drivers Kimi Antonelli<\/a> and Arvid Lindblad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That May, at Genk in Belgium, he won a race in the CIK-FIA European Championship and a Champions of the Future race in the OK category.<\/p>\n

That record got him noticed by Escuderia Telmex, Ferrari<\/a>\u2018s scouting partner in Mexico and Latin America, which put him forward for the Ferrari Driver Academy\u2019s world finals.<\/p>\n

He did well there despite limited experience in a Formula 4 car and became the academy\u2019s third Brazilian, after Enzo Fittipaldi and Gianluca Petecof.<\/p>\n

He was selected for the FDA in November 2021 and made his single-seater debut in 2022, joining the same academy as Oliver Bearman, Ocon\u2019s current team-mate at Haas.<\/p>\n

\"Clipboard<\/p>\n

The Brazilian won the F3 title as a rookie in 2025<\/p>\n

\n Ferrari\n <\/p>\n

His first single-seater year was 2022. He finished second in the Formula 4 UAE Championship and third in both the Italian and ADAC series. He was third in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship in both 2023 and 2024, and won the Formula Regional European Championship title later in 2024.<\/p>\n

In 2025 he won the Formula 3 title with four feature-race victories from pole, and became the first F3 champion to clinch the title with a round to spare.<\/p>\n

He then moved to Invicta for F2, the team that had run Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> and Leonardo Fornaroli to the previous two titles.<\/p>\n

His rookie F2 season has been fast and with a somewhat uneven start. He won lights-to-flag in Hungary, but at Monaco he went straight on at Sainte Devote and handed the net race lead to title rival Nikola Tsolov.<\/p>\n

Since then, however, he has failed to scored in just three Sprint races, chasing down season-long championship leader Tsolov.<\/p>\n

Baku<\/a> finally changed the picture. He qualified in the top five for both races and finished fourth in the first Feature race after a drag race to the line with Noel Leon, which put him a point clear of Tsolov in the standings.<\/p>\n

\"Rafael<\/p>\n

The F2 title could be C\u00e2mara\u2019s at Imola<\/a> if the Middle East races don\u2019t go ahead<\/p>\n

\n Ferrari\n <\/p>\n

Then, on Saturday, he took the flag second in the second Feature race and inherited the win when Alex Dunne was penalised, his third Feature race victory of the season.<\/p>\n

With Losail<\/a> and Abu Dhabi still to come, if both rounds do take place, C\u00e2mara leads Tsolov by seven points.<\/p>\n

What Haas wants from C\u00e2mara<\/p>\n

Komatsu has been open about the checklist for the man replacing Ocon: speed first, then quality of feedback, then being a good team player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking for in a driver, first and foremost, is the guy needs to have speed, the guy needs to be fast,\u201d Komatsu said in Baku.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that is their talent. We cannot teach them the speed, so [they] need to be fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feedback and team play can be built inside a team. Speed can\u2019t, so Haas is hoping that with C\u00e2mara, it\u2019s buying the speed.<\/p>\n

On speed, C\u00e2mara\u2019s case rests on his pace through the season and on what Haas has seen for itself.<\/p>\n

Haas ran a test with last year\u2019s VF-25 at Portimao<\/a> on 26-28 August, with C\u00e2mara alongside Fornaroli and reserve Ryo Hirakawa.<\/p>\n

The three days of running look to have secured Camara his F1 seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed when we had him drive in our TPC program in Portugal that he could handle himself very well with not a huge amount of time to learn the car,\u201d said Hirakawa.<\/p>\n

\"Ayao<\/p>\n

Komatsu wants, above all, C\u00e2mara\u2019s speed<\/p>\n

\n Haas\n <\/p>\n

The key requirement was ticked, then. But it was his potential that also shone through in Portimao. \u201cHe showed us more than just raw speed,\u201d Komatsu conmtinued. \u201cRafa managed to create an environment to get the best out of himself, it was very impressive and certainly the laps he completed were special.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all excited about this opportunity and really committed to nurture this talent and provide a place where he can flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t Haas\u2019s first look at him. C\u00e2mara has also run Ferrari\u2019s previous-generation cars which is valuable as a speed check, but there are no starts and no race pressure to go with them.<\/p>\n

Komatsu had named C\u00e2mara among five candidates, with those two plus Jack Doohan<\/a> and Ocon.<\/p>\n

Toyota<\/a>, Haas\u2019s technical partner, preferred Hirakawa, and Gene Haas is reportedly the one who pushed for C\u00e2mara.<\/p>\n

Haas\u2019 gamble on C\u00e2mara is smaller than it looks, because Ferrari is carrying part of the risk. Team chief Fred Vasseur has said \u201cWe strongly support Rafael\u201d and that the cost of Ferrari\u2019s testing programme with him far exceeds its financial support.<\/p>\n

Haas is a Ferrari customer, and the deal makes an all-academy pairing with Bearman. Komatsu says that \u201cdoesn\u2019t really matter\u201d to him.<\/p>\n

A risky bet?<\/p>\n

Ocon\u2019s own season complicated the case for retaining him, as his speed wasn\u2019t as consistent as expected from a driver who was supposed to lead the team.<\/p>\n

\"Oliver<\/p>\n

Bearman will be the team\u2019s leader in 2027<\/p>\n

\n Haas\n <\/p>\n

The car, however, has been a limiting factor for both him and Bearman this year, as Haas has continued to operate below the budget cap, unlike most, if not all, of its rivals.<\/p>\n

Ocon\u2019s experience hasn\u2019t been turning into points, and if the car is the limit, Haas may reason that the seat is better used to grow a driver than to hold one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Haas\u2018s statement on Esteban Ocon\u2018s departure, announced at the end of September by the American Formula 1 team,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,5328,46839,85],"class_list":["post-929873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-haas","tag-rafael-camara","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}