Departing Haas driver Esteban Ocon believes that Rafael Camara deserves his chance in Formula 1, but not at his expense.

The Ferrari junior, and current Formula 2 title contender, has been confirmed as one-half of Haas’ driver line-up for F1 2027, following the announcement that Ocon would leave the team at the end of 2026.

Rafael Camara deserves F1 shot, but Ocon not done

Ahead of the United States Grand Prix, Ocon spoke for the first time since it was announced that Camara had signed a multi-year deal to join Haas.

While the second seat is not yet officially taken, the impressive Oliver Bearman is expected to continue with Haas in an all-Ferrari junior F1 2027 line-up.

Ocon was asked whether he is approaching each race weekend with a different mindset, knowing this could be his last F1 season.

“I’m coming here to do the best job I can with trying to exploit the maximum amount of the car,” he said.

“I deserve to be here in Formula 1. There are many circumstances why I’m not here next year, but they are not performance reasons. I’ve won everything, in every category I’ve done in go-kart, in Formula Renault, in Formula 3, in GP3, in F1, in all these categories, I’ve won races. So, just thinking of a sports perspective, I deserve to be in F1.

“I believe that this is not my last year in F1.”

Camara enters Formula 1 backed by Mexico’s Carlos Slim Domit’s Escudería Telmex, which also supports Cadillac F1 driver Sergio Perez.

The Brazilian has been tipped to become a “money-printing machine” of comparable proportions for Haas.

Ocon was asked whether the ‘circumstances’ which he mentioned was a nod to Camara being a Ferrari youngster with a commercial package.

Haas is a technical partner of Ferrari, a relationship reaching beyond just power unit supply.

“I can’t say very much,” Ocon responded. “What I will say is that Rafa deserves a shot in F1. I think he’s shown in the categories that he’s very good.

“But I don’t deserve to be out of F1 at the same time.”

Which driver doesn’t deserve to be in F1 then, or are there simply not enough seats, Ocon was quizzed on in response.

“I’m not here to say who deserves to be and who doesn’t.

“But just looking at the results, as I said, Rafa deserves a shot in F1 for sure.

“But I don’t deserve to be out in the way that I’ve had at the moment.

“Of course, I’m working on the solution for next year, and that’s the main target to do well this weekend and to do well in the next week.”

As it stands, the only remaining vacancy on the F1 2027 grid is at Racing Bulls. However, the Faenza squad is choosing between Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad and Camara’s F2 title rival Nikola Tsolov to fill its two seats.

As such, Ocon was asked whether any other category outside of F1 has caught his eye.

“Not yet, no.

“There are lots of great categories out there with a high level, you know, WEC [World Endurance Championship], Formula E.

“All of these categories are obviously fantastic. But I’m looking for Formula 1 in the near future.”

Camara is striving to follow in the footsteps of Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli by winning the F2 title in his rookie season.

If successful, he’d join Piastri, Bortoleto and Fornaroli as a back-to-back F3 and F2 title winner.

Formula 2 and 3 CEO Bruno Michel believes that Camara has earned his call-up to F1 with Haas.

Asked by PlanetF1.com for his reaction to the announcement, he said: “For us, it’s fantastic news.

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“As I always say, the main mission of F2 is to prepare drivers for Formula 1, and to make sure that when they get there, they’re ready.

“It’s always very important that the F1 teams are giving their trust in what we’re doing to prepare the drivers.

“I’m really, really happy for Rafa. He’s having a fantastic season. He had a fantastic F3 season before. I think it’s fully deserved. It’s very, very, very good news for us.”