{"id":609309,"date":"2026-09-23T15:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/609309\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T15:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:04:10","slug":"esteban-ocon-confirms-free-agent-status-as-haas-f1-doubts-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/609309\/","title":{"rendered":"Esteban Ocon confirms &#8216;free agent&#8217; status as Haas F1 doubts grow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Esteban Ocon has declared he is a \u201cfree agent\u201d for 2027 as doubts grow over his F1 future with Haas.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Ocon joined the American squad last year and enjoyed a positive start to life at the team with a fifth-place result at the Chinese Grand Prix.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>However, the 2026 campaign has been a challenging period for Ocon and Haas, with the Frenchman bagging two top-10 finishes in the 14 rounds staged so far.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Speculation has mounted in recent times that Ocon could be facing an exit from Haas for the 2027 season.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>RacingNews365 understands that F2 title challenger <a href=\"https:\/\/racingnews365.com\/haas-facing-final-evaluation-as-2027-line-up-decision-nears\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rafael Camara is the favourite for the seat<\/a> alongside Oliver Bearman next year.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Ocon added further fuel to the fire when the subject arose in conversation.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the moment, I&#8217;m definitely a free agent for next year,\u201d Ocon told media including RacingNews365.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are things in discussion that are out of my control.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are certain topics that are out of my control. So, I will keep pushing until the end of the year and see how it goes.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>When asked if being labelled as a free agent meant that he is talking with other teams, Ocon said: \u201cOf course.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Ocon has noted on several occasions this year that he has struggled with the consistency of his car&#8217;s handling.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>However, he maintained that he has put in respectable performances and that \u201cwhatever car I got, I will get 100 per cent out of it.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old was then quizzed as to if Haas remains an option for 2027, to which he replied: \u201cLet&#8217;s see.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Esteban Ocon has declared he is a \u201cfree agent\u201d for 2027 as doubts grow over his F1 future&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3518,3521,3519,3522,3520,3517,3515,3513,3516,3514,111,139,69,3512,213],"class_list":["post-609309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}