Rafael Camara has revealed which F1 race number he is going to use after news of his promotion to grand prix racing with Haas was confirmed.
The Brazilian was confirmed earlier this week as a full-time race driver with the team from the 2027 season, and will replace Esteban Ocon who is departing after two seasons.
Whilst his team-mate is not yet officially confirmed, Oliver Bearman is expected to stay for a third season, with Camara, who is leading the FIA F2 standings, confirming which number he will run on his first Haas F1 car.
Camara will use #50 when he debuts in the Bahrain Grand Prix in March, becoming the first driver to opt to choose the number as their personal pick.
Interestingly, the #50 was used by Bearman himself during his two substitute appearances for Haas in 2024 in Azerbaijan and Sao Paulo, deputising for the banned and then ill, respectively, Kevin Magnussen.
But as Bearman was only a substitute driver, the #50 was then Haas’s reverse number and not Bearman’s personal choice, which turned out to be #87 when he debuted full-time in 2025.
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Camara explains his choice
When asked by media, including RacingNews365 why he had opted to chose #50, Camara explained his choice.
“We’ll be using the #50,” he said.
“Obviously the first choice would be #5, but Gabriel [Bortoleto] is using that, but it will be #50 as my birthday is 05/05/2005, and I spoke with my dad, and he said that I’m 50.
“It makes sense with the birthday date, so I’ll be using that one for next year.”
With the news of Camara’s announcement, it leaves just five seats to be publicly announced for the 2027 grid.
These are at Mercedes, where is is unthinkable that either George Russell or world champion-elect Kimi Antonelli will be dropped, at Racing Bulls where Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad are hoping they aren’t dropped for Camara’s F2 rival Nikola Tsolov and the second Haas seat, which is expected to be Bearman’s once again.
In the table below, we’ve listed the race numbers for every driver confirmed thus far for the 2027 season, missing out the five seats mentioned above.
For Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Lewis Hamilton, as they are all still mathematically in title contention, they could all still win and elect to change to the #1 in 2027 – although Hamilton did not do this when winning titles at Mercedes, staying with his #44.
In the case of the reigning champion Norris, he will revert to his previous race number of #4 for 2027, having lost the right to carry the #1, barring an extraordinary comeback.