Formula 1 2027: two Brazilians on the grid. Rafael Câmara is arriving.

Recife is celebrating. The Pernambuco native Rafael Câmara, possible Formula 2 champion in 2026, was confirmed this Thursday (Oct 15) as the new driver for the Haas team, replacing Esteban Ocon. Câmara will race next season alongside the British driver Ollie Bearman. The 34th Brazilian to reach F1 is the first from the Northeast.

The last time Brazil had 2 drivers in F1 was in 2016 with Felipe Massa (Williams) and Felipe Nasr (Sauber). Massa finished the championship in 11th with 54 points and Nasr in 17th with 2 points. The champion was Nico Rosberg (Mercedes).

Câmara secured the seat with his excellent performances in the F2 championship and in the tests he carried out with F1 cars, beating competitors such as Jack Doohan (who already raced for Alpine between 2024 and 2025), Leonardo Fornaroli (F2 champion in 2025), Ryo Hirakawa (Haas test driver since last year), and Esteban Ocon himself, who intended to do one more season with the team.

Ayao Komatsu, Haas team principal, said that Câmara has a great ability to extract the maximum from his technical skills and take advantage of everything the car offers. These qualities were decisive. It is worth remembering that the Recife native, in a test with a Haas car, was faster than the full-time driver Oliver Bearman. Ferrari has already defined that Rafael will remain linked to their young talent academy, which means, in practice, that he could race for the Italian scuderia in the future.

Rafael Chaves Câmara, 21 years old, started racing karts at only 6 years old. In 2019, he was world runner-up in the OK Junior class. In 2021, he won the WS Champions Cup and WSK Super Master Series championships. In that same year, he became part of the Ferrari Academy.

In 2023, he competed in the Italian and German F4 and finished the season accumulating 9 wins and 10 poles. In 2025, he won the Formula 3 title. And this year, 2026, he is leading Formula 2 with 207 points against 200 of the Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov. The final two races scheduled for Qatar and Abu Dhabi may not happen due to the latest attacks in the Middle East. In this case, Câmara will already be declared champion of the season.