French driver Esteban Ocon has confirmed that he will leave the Haas F1 Team at the conclusion of the 2026 season. The announcement was made jointly by the driver and the team in a brief statement released on Monday, and has been picked up by several major motorsport outlets including Reuters, Sky Sports F1 and Motorsport.com.
Background and recent performance
Ocon joined Haas for the 2024 season after spending three years with Alpine, where he earned a race win in 2021 and regularly finished in the points. In his two seasons with the American outfit, he has been a steady point‑scorer, helping Haas climb to seventh in the Constructors' Championship in 2025. While the team has not yet challenged the front‑running squads, Ocon’s experience and technical feedback have been credited with stabilising the car’s development trajectory.
What the departure means for Haas
With the 2026 season set to be the final year of the current engine regulations, Haas will need to plan a driver line‑up that aligns with its long‑term strategy. The team has not yet disclosed who will replace Ocon, but sources close to the outfit suggest that a young driver from the FIA Formula 2 or Formula 3 ranks could be on the shortlist, reflecting Haas’s history of nurturing emerging talent. The timing also coincides with the team’s upcoming partnership with a new power‑unit supplier, meaning the next driver will likely be part of a broader technical package.
For Indian fans
Indian viewers can follow Ocon’s final races with Haas on FanCode, which streams the entire 2026 calendar live in India. All sessions will be shown in Indian Standard Time (IST), with the typical race weekend schedule of practice on Friday (12:30 pm IST), qualifying on Saturday (12:30 pm IST) and the Grand Prix on Sunday (12:30 pm IST). The departure also opens up a potential slot for an Indian driver to enter F1 in the future, a prospect that has generated considerable buzz among local fans.
While the exact replacement remains unannounced, the move underscores the fluid nature of driver contracts ahead of the 2027 season, when the new technical regulations are expected to reshape the grid. Ocon’s exit will be watched closely as both a personal career milestone and a signal of Haas’s evolving ambitions.
Source: Reuters
