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Haas to run Hirakawa in Mexico despite Camara signing
Haas will give another FP1 outing to reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa at the Mexico City Grand Prix despite singing Rafael Camara to race in 2027.
Camara impressed in a testing of previous car (TPC) shootout in August, in what was his first time driving for Haas. The Brazilian rookie has yet to appear in an FP1 but is set to get opportunities with Ferrari rather than his upcoming team, with Haas confirming that Hirakawa will get his third run at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
As a Haas reserve driver alongside Jack Doohan, Hirakawa last drove in FP1 in Hungary, but was also part of the evaluation process for a race seat in 2027 before losing out to Camara.
Hirakawa joins an extremely busy FP1 in terms of rookie drivers, with Freddie Slater making his debut for Audi this coming Friday. Slater was in contention for the Formula 3 championship this season before losing out to American Ugo Ugochukwu at the final round and will step up to Formula 2 next year.
As well as Hirakawa and Slater, there will be another appearance for Fred Vesti at Mercedes, while Leonardo Fornaroli gets his latest chance to drive for McLaren in place of Lando Norris in FP1. Luke Browning is also a familiar face at Williams, but there will be another debutant in the form of Alpine young driver Gabriele Mini.
Colton Herta is also expected to get another chance to impress Cadillac amid speculation that he could still be promoted into a race seat next season, while Aston Martin will also provide Jak Crawford with his fourth run in current machinery, a year on from his own debut in FP1 at the same venue.
“We are pleased to give Jak another opportunity in the AMR26,” chief trackside officer Mike Krack said. “He returns to Mexico City with considerably more experience than when he made his FP1 debut there last year. His contributions through our simulator and testing programs have been valuable, and this session provides another opportunity to demonstrate his capabilities while supporting the team's preparations for the weekend.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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