{"id":947707,"date":"2026-10-31T15:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T15:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947707\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T15:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T15:08:11","slug":"haas-drops-ocon-for-f1-mexico-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947707\/","title":{"rendered":"Haas drops Ocon for F1 Mexico GP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Haas Formula 1 team has made the shock decision to replace <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/esteban-ocon\/840488\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Esteban Ocon<\/a> with reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa for the remainder of the Mexico Grand Prix weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Hirakawa will act as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/oliver-bearman\/876509\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Oliver Bearman<\/a>\u2019s team-mate for final practice, qualifying and Sunday\u2019s race, having also taken Ocon\u2019s VF-26 on Friday morning as part of the rookie mandate for FP1 sessions.<\/p>\n<p>Ocon returned for second practice, finishing 13th, but caused a stir following his spat with race engineer Laura Mueller over whether to stick to the soft tyres or switch to medium rubber.<\/p>\n<p>A Haas statement read: \u201cRyo\u00a0Hirakawa will replace Esteban Ocon for the remainder of the weekend\u2019s Mexico City Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRyo\u00a0participated in FP1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Friday, his third free practice outing of the season driving the VF-26, finishing 15th overall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Japanese driver will partner team-mate Ollie Bearman through final practice and qualifying on Saturday and Sunday\u2019s 71-lap grand prix \u2013 marking Ryo&#8217;s Formula 1 race debut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo further statements will be made at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ryo-hirakawa-haas-f1-team.jpg\" alt=\"Ryo Hirakawa, Haas F1 Team\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Ryo Hirakawa, Haas F1 Team<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Simon Galloway \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Hirakawa\u2019s\u00a0F1 debut will come at the age of 32. He spent much of his career in Japan, becoming the 2017 Super GT champion, before moving to the World Endurance Championship.<\/p>\n<p>He has claimed two WEC titles with Toyota, alongside victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours, and that relationship with the Japanese marque earned him a move to Haas as its reserve driver in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>That came as the result of Toyota and Haas forming a technical partnership, leading to him contesting seven FP1 sessions and being a contender for a 2027 F1 seat &#8211; only to lose out to Rafael Camara.<\/p>\n<p>Read Also:<\/p>\n<p>For Ocon\u00a0\u2013\u00a0who is set to be replaced by Camara\u00a0\u2013\u00a0it marks a striking resemblance to how his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/alpine\/39174\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Alpine<\/a> stint ended in 2024, as he was replaced by successor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/jack-doohan\/841992\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jack Doohan<\/a> for the Abu Dhabi finale.<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old Frenchman is likely to become Aston Martin\u2019s reserve in 2027, Autosport understands,\u00a0after a disappointing time since joining Haas in 2025\u00a0\u2013 comfortably being beaten by Bearman.<\/p>\n<p>            We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our survey<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Haas Formula 1 team has made the shock decision to replace Esteban Ocon with reserve driver Ryo&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,141204,22304,817,813,816,515301,5241,141203,142608,85],"class_list":["post-947707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez","tag-esteban-ocon","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-haas-drops-ocon-for-f1-mexico-gp","tag-haas-f1-team","tag-mexican-gp","tag-ryo-hirakawa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947707","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=947707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}