TGR Haas F1 Team confirmed on Thursday, October 15, 2026, the signing of 21-year-old Brazilian driver Rafael Câmara for the 2027 Formula 1 World Championship. Born in Recife, the state capital of Pernambuco, the young competitor agreed to a multi-year contract with the American outfit, securing his place on the starting grid at least through the end of the 2028 campaign as the successor to Frenchman Esteban Ocon.
The incoming rookie will race alongside British driver Oliver Bearman, creating a two-car lineup composed entirely of members developed by the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy. Haas had previously announced on September 30, 2026, that Ocon would depart the organization at the conclusion of the 2026 calendar, bringing an end to a two-year stint with the squad. “I’m very happy to be joining TGR Haas F1 Team as a Formula 1 driver. It’s an important step in my career and I want to thank Gene Haas and Ayao Komatsu for the trust they have placed in me. I’m also very grateful to the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy for their support and for everything they have contributed to my development over the years, as well as to my family for always being there throughout this journey,” Câmara stated in an official release.
Gabriel Bortoleto and Rafael Câmara restore dual Brazilian presence on the starting grid
With his promotion to the American team, the Recife native ensures that two full-time Brazilian drivers will compete simultaneously on the Formula 1 grid for the first time in 11 seasons. He joins Gabriel Bortoleto, who races for Audi after ending the South American nation’s representation drought upon his debut in 2025 with Sauber, the Swiss-based operation that subsequently transitioned into the German manufacturer’s factory entry. Prior to this agreement, the last campaign to feature two permanent Brazilian starters was 2016, when Felipe Massa drove for Williams and Felipe Nasr competed for Sauber.
Born on May 5, 2005, in the capital of Pernambuco, the newly signed Haas driver will become the 34th Brazilian in history to participate in Formula 1 and the very first representative from both his home state and Brazil’s Northeast region in the premier category of open-wheel racing. Among the 33 Brazilians who previously raced in the top flight of motorsport, 22 were born in the Southeast region, five in the South, one in the Center-West, one in the North, and four abroad.
“I am very happy to have achieved the dream. Of course it is not going to end here, but I am very pleased to fulfill a part of it and be in Formula 1. It took many years on this journey with my parents, above all. A lot of sacrifice, a lot of dedication. I am very happy for them as well, for everything they did to make this work,” the driver told broadcast commentator Mariana Becker during an interview.
Private evaluation at the Portimão circuit in Portugal secured the seat over three rivals
Prior to finalizing the multi-year agreement, the Ferrari junior completed an on-track evaluation at the end of August 2026 at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, Portugal. Participating in the team’s Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) program, which allows squads to run machinery from prior seasons, he drove the VF-25 model and recorded the fastest lap of the day, beating the benchmark time set by regular starter Oliver Bearman. In the internal selection process for the 2027 race seat, the Brazilian beat several other candidates evaluated by team management, including reigning Formula 2 champion and McLaren reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli of Italy, Japanese reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa, and former Alpine racer Jack Doohan of Australia.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal of TGR Haas F1 Team, pointed to the recruit’s rapid adaptation to the Formula 1 machinery during the three-day Portuguese running and his qualifying speed on challenging street circuits in the feeder series. “I’m really excited to sign such a young, amazing talent like Rafael Câmara. I don’t need to talk about his achievements in the junior categories, which have been very impressive. And, in his rookie season in Formula 2, the speed he has demonstrated in very difficult moments, such as in qualifying in Monaco and Montreal, shows all the potential that Rafa has,” the team boss declared.
The Japanese executive added that the driver’s composure and technical feedback at the Portimão track weighed heavily in the final choice, noting that a small team requires both raw pace and a strong collaborative mentality. “He showed when we had him drive in our TPC program in Portugal that he could handle himself very well without having much time to learn the car. He showed us more than pure speed,” Komatsu said. Gene Haas, owner and founder of Haas F1 Team, also weighed in on the addition of the young driver: “It is a different challenge at this level, but what we have experienced with Ollie Bearman, following a similar trajectory and with the link to the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy, shows that these young drivers arrive well prepared and can make an immediate impact on a team.”
Formula 2 championship lead with Invicta Racing and consecutive junior category titles
The son of Amaro Câmara and Paula Câmara, the Brazilian driver entered the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of 2021 alongside Bearman after winning major international karting tournaments, including the WSK Champions Cup and the WSK Super Master Series. Transitioning to single-seaters, he captured back-to-back championships in the Formula Regional European Championship (FRECA) in 2024 with Prema and in FIA Formula 3 in 2025 with Trident during his rookie season. Throughout his title-winning Formula 3 campaign, which secured the required points for his International Automobile Federation (FIA) Super Licence, he accumulated 166 points, four race victories, and a category-record five pole positions, matching Arvid Lindblad for the highest win percentage in the history of the series.
Competing for Invicta Racing in his debut Formula 2 season in 2026, the 21-year-old leads the drivers’ standings after 12 rounds with three Feature Race victories in Barcelona, Spa-Francorchamps, and Baku, alongside six total podium finishes. Renowned for his one-lap speed, he maintains a qualifying average of 2.54 across the 2026 campaign and has claimed five pole positions, sitting behind only Charles Leclerc’s record of eight poles in a single Formula 2 season. Following the round in Baku, where he turned an 11-point deficit into a seven-point advantage, the top six contenders mathematically in reach of the 2026 Formula 2 Drivers’ Championship stand as follows:
- 1st: Rafael Câmara (Brazil, Invicta Racing) — 207 points
- 2nd: Nikola Tsolov (Bulgaria, Campos Racing) — 200 points
- 3rd: Alexander Dunne (Ireland, Rodin Motorsport) — 189 points
- 4th: Gabriele Minì (Italy, MP Motorsport) — 163 points
- 5th: Dino Beganovic (Sweden, DAMS Lucas Oil) — 137 points
- 6th: Noel León (Mexico, Campos Racing) — 133 points
Before stepping into the Haas cockpit for his Formula 1 debut in 2027, Rafael Câmara will contest the 2026 Formula 2 title decider across the final two scheduled rounds of the calendar in Qatar, from November 27 to 29, and in Abu Dhabi, where a maximum of 78 points remain available. If the Brazilian holds onto his lead over Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov, he will become the first driver in motorsport history to win the FRECA, Formula 3, and Formula 2 championships in consecutive seasons.
