Who is Rafael Camara? The low down on new Haas driver for 2027

Haas has confirmed Rafael Camara as its second driver for 2027, ending Esteban Ocon's two-year spell with the American outfit.

The 21-year-old Brazilian, a Ferrari Driver Academy product since 2021, will line up alongside Oliver Bearman at the Banbury-based team from next season.

Camara joins after working his way through the junior single-seater ladder with remarkable consistency, culminating in back-to-back titles that have made him one of the grid's most highly rated prospects.

Camara was born in Recife and built his reputation in karting, winning the WSK Champions Cup, WSK Super Master Series and Champions of the Future titles in 2021. That form earned him a place at Ferrari's World Scouting Finals and, from there, a route into the Ferrari Driver Academy.

His car racing career began in 2022 with Prema Racing, where he finished runner-up in Formula 4 UAE and third overall in both Italian F4 and ADAC Formula 4 in his rookie single-seater campaign.

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The road to Formula 3 and F2 for Camara

Camara moved into Formula Regional for 2023 and 2024, finishing third in the Middle East Championship in both years before claiming the 2024 FRECA title with a round to spare, taking seven wins along the way.

Stepping up to FIA Formula 3 with Trident in 2025, he won the championship as a rookie, taking four feature race victories and becoming the team's third consecutive F3 champion after Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli.

For this year, Camara graduated to Formula 2 with Invicta Racing. He has won at Barcelona, Spa-Francorchamps and Baku to lead the standings with two rounds to spare in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, providing they go ahead given the continuing uncertainty in the region due to the Iran-US war.

His sporting credentials for a Super Licence were effectively locked in once he won FRECA and F3 in consecutive seasons, comfortably clearing the mandatory 40-point threshold.

He has also already sampled contemporary F1 machinery, completing a Testing of Previous Cars outing in a Ferrari SF-25 at the Hungaroring in May, with further TPC mileage in Haas machinery following over the summer.

Haas confirmed at the end of September that Ocon would leave at season's end, after falling short of internal expectations alongside Bearman. For Camara, the step up caps a rapid rise through the junior categories.