Haas Benches Ocon for Mexico City GP, Hands Shock Debut to Hirakawa

Haas has pulled Esteban Ocon out of the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend entirely, handing the VF-26 to reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa for final practice, qualifying and Sunday's 71-lap race. The call followed a heated radio exchange between Ocon and race engineer Laura Mueller over whether to stay on softs or switch to mediums in FP2, a session he ended 13th.

Why it matters:

A mid-session tyre argument has escalated into a full driver change, an unusually blunt move even for a team that has watched Ocon get comfortably out-paced by Oliver Bearman since he arrived in 2025. It also hands a debut nobody had scheduled to Hirakawa, at 32, while leaving Ocon's F1 career hanging on a reserve role.

The details:

• Hirakawa ran FP1 on Friday under the rookie mandate, finishing 15th, and now partners Bearman for the rest of the weekend.
• The Japanese driver won the 2017 Super GT title before adding two WEC crowns and a Le Mans win with Toyota — the relationship that put him at Haas as reserve in 2025 via the Toyota technical partnership.
• He had seven FP1 outings this year and was in the frame for a 2027 race seat, only to lose out to Rafael Camara.
• Ocon, 30, is set to be replaced by Camara anyway, mirroring his Alpine exit in 2024 when Jack Doohan took his car for the Abu Dhabi finale. He is expected to resurface at Aston Martin as reserve.
• Haas offered no reasoning beyond confirming the switch, closing with: "No further statements will be made at this time."

What's next:

Hirakawa gets a single weekend in a car Bearman has described as hitting its ceiling, with no Friday running of his own to lean on beyond that FP1 stint. For Ocon, the exit is another abrupt ending, and the market for a 30-year-old with one race-winner's pedigree but a bruising two seasons behind him looks thin.