Haas Has 5 Drivers Fighting for a 2027 F1 Seat—Komatsu Says Money Won’t Decide It

Haas has five candidates for one 2027 Formula 1 race seat, and team principal Ayao Komatsu says commercial connections will not decide who wins it. Esteban Ocon currently occupies the seat under discussion, while reserve drivers Jack Doohan and Ryō Hirakawa, McLaren junior Leonardo Fornaroli, and Ferrari Driver Academy member Rafael Câmara remain in contention, according to reporting around the subject.

That leaves Haas with plenty of options, but no rush. The team’s immediate concern has been extracting more from the current car and drivers, especially after a promising start that included Oliver Bearman‘s fifth-place finish in China before Haas slipped behind midfield rivals.

Haas Is Using Testing To Separate The Candidates

Haas has already put three contenders through its Testing of Previous Cars program. Câmara, Fornaroli, and Hirakawa drove the VF-25 at Portugal’s Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, with Bearman completing reference running.

Doohan was next in line for a September TPC outing at Jerez. Haas announced him as an official reserve driver in February earlier this year, joining Hirakawa in that role. The testing in Spain allows him to demonstrate his abilities in the car, moving beyond the limits of his already solid reputation.

Komatsu’s comments following Saturday’s running in Madrid suggest that the seat is still wide open. When asked about a further test, he said one was planned for the following week in Spain. He also said the active pool had grown to five, rather than the two or three candidates a journalist expected. It’s assumed that it’s Esteban Ocon’s seat that is up for grabs, not Bearman, who has shown plenty of momentum this season.

Affiliations Are Good, Not A Reason to Drive

Haas has obvious reasons to consider outside relationships. Câmara brings Ferrari backing, Fornaroli is part of McLaren’s junior program, and Hirakawa is affiliated with Toyota as well as serving as a Haas reserve. Haas continues to have both commercial and technical partnerships with Ferrari and Toyota.

“I always always said we we take driver by performance,” Komatsu told the media. “So performance comes absolutely first. If somebody’s two drivers got equal performance, affiliations, or the packages they’ve got matters, but we never take somebody who’s three tenths slower but this guy’s got affiliations either Toyota or Ferrari or this guy’s got five million or more. We’re not going to do that. So it’s all about performance first.”

Would it be best to have two drivers in affiliation with Ferrari?

“That doesn’t really matter to me at all. We really want wfast drivers because that’s the best way to grow this team. Doesn’t matter if it’s two Ferrari drivers or two Toyota drivers or two McLaren drivers.

“But honestly it doesn’t matter – whoever is the fastest. That the best one again like for everybody, 400 people working here, they need to know that we got the best driver choice that we can get hold of, so that this is the best two drivers that getting best out of the car. Imagine taking somebody half a second off for extra money. That’s not going to be very motivating and also like one position in the championship that’s quite quite a lot of money, right.”