“Thank you to Haas for the opportunity. Scoring a point on debut, I will never forget this day.”
Biography
Last updated after the Mexico City Grand Prix.
By the Numbers
Career Timeline
Recent Form
One race into his Formula 1 career, Hirakawa has a single data point: a points finish on debut. P10 from P18 at Mexico City is a positive opening entry and there’s no slump or spike to chart yet. The baseline is set and it’s a reasonable one.
A debut points finish gives Haas something to build on with their newest driver. Whether this represents Hirakawa’s floor or ceiling in the early part of his career remains to be seen, but P21 in the championship with one race scored is exactly where you’d expect a driver to sit one round in.
Latest Race
Hirakawa finished P10 from P18 on the grid at the Mexico City Grand Prix, scoring a single championship point on his Formula 1 debut. Gaining eight places across the race is a solid return for a driver starting from deep in the field and it opens his career points tally immediately.
2026 So Far
Hirakawa sits P21 in the drivers’ championship with 1 point after a single race, his F1 debut coming in 2026 with Haas. The season is one round old, the trajectory is points-on-the-board from the off and there’s a full calendar still to run.
Ryo Hirakawa (平川 亮) is a Japanese racing driver born 7 March 1994 in Hiroshima. He made his Formula 1 race debut with Haas F1 Team at the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix, replacing Esteban Ocon from round 19 onward, and scored a World Championship point on debut at age 32.
Path to Formula 1
Hirakawa’s route to Formula 1 ran through Japan’s domestic single-seater and sportscar ladders rather than the traditional European F2/F3 track. He won the 2022 Super Formula championship with Team Impul, Japan’s top open-wheel series, after seven seasons on the grid. In parallel he built a sportscar career with Toyota GAZOO Racing’s World Endurance Championship LMP1 and Hypercar programmes.
FIA WEC Hypercar champion
In 2023 Hirakawa claimed the FIA WEC Hypercar drivers’ title alongside Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley in the number 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID, backing up his Le Mans 24 Hours class victory from 2022. He has remained a core factory driver for Toyota’s endurance programme throughout his F1 reserve seasons.
F1 reserve and simulator seasons
Hirakawa joined Alpine as a reserve and simulator driver in 2023, before switching to McLaren in a similar capacity in 2024 and taking part in his first official F1 session with Haas during Free Practice 1 at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He spent 2025 as the Mercedes-AMG F1 reserve, embedded with the Brackley team during the first year of the 2026 regulations preparation.
2026 Formula 1 race debut
With Haas needing to replace Esteban Ocon mid-season ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix, Hirakawa was drafted in on short notice. He qualified 19th on his debut without any practice setup time, then raced cleanly through the Red Flag restart to be classified 10th after post-race penalties handed to the Alpine cars, scoring Haas a World Championship point and giving Japan a race driver on the F1 grid for the first time since Yuki Tsunoda.
Hirakawa continues as the second Haas race driver alongside Oliver Bearman for the remaining four rounds of the 2026 season.
Latest News
Komatsu explains why Hirakawa lost Brazilian GP seat
Ryo Hirakawa has been dropped from the Haas car for the Brazilian Grand Prix, with team principal Ayao Komatsu handing the seat to Ferrari junior Rafael Camara for his Formula 1 debut. Komatsu’s reasoning was blunt: the decision was made on the basis of professionalism, though he was careful to clarify that this isn’t a criticism of Hirakawa’s conduct or attitude. What it does reflect is that Komatsu looked at both candidates and concluded Camara was the better fit for this particular weekend. Hirakawa had stepped in for Haas as a stand-in driver and the team clearly values what he brought, but the opportunity to give Camara his debut at a home race in Brazil proved the stronger pull. The timing is notable given the context surrounding Esteban Ocon’s troubled spell with the team, which has kept the reserve driver conversation very much alive in the Haas paddock. Hirakawa remains a credible option for future outings but he’ll have to wait for another chance to add to his F1 mileage. For now, Interlagos belongs to Camara.
Hirakawa steps up for Mexico GP after Ocon dropped
Ryo Hirakawa has been handed a surprise race seat at Haas for the Mexico City Grand Prix after the team made the decision to drop Esteban Ocon for the remainder of the weekend. Hirakawa had already been in the car on Friday morning as part of the mandatory rookie FP1 programme, but the plan was always for Ocon to return from FP2 onwards. That changed when Haas opted to keep their reserve driver in the seat, meaning Hirakawa will partner Oliver Bearman for final practice, qualifying and Sunday’s race. It’s a significant step up for the Japanese driver, who moves from a single practice outing to a full competitive weekend without much warning. The circumstances are unusual to say the least, with Haas making what the source describes as a shock call mid-weekend rather than at a scheduled driver change point. Hirakawa now has the chance to show what he can do in race conditions with the VF-26, something reserve drivers rarely get at short notice. How he performs against Bearman across qualifying and the race will be closely watched, both by Haas and by anyone tracking his prospects of a longer-term seat in the sport.
Hirakawa scores points on F1 debut in Mexico
Ryo Hirakawa picked up points on his Formula 1 debut at the Mexico Grand Prix, though the circumstances were somewhat unusual. The Haas driver didn’t earn his way into the top ten on the road in the conventional sense. Instead, post-race penalties handed to both Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto promoted Hirakawa into the points. Both Gasly and Colapinto were found by FIA stewards to have failed to slow sufficiently under yellow flag conditions during the race, and the resulting time penalties dropped them out of the top ten. That opened the door for Hirakawa, who had been sitting just outside the points in the provisional classification. It’s a debut result that comes with an asterisk, but points are points in Formula 1 and the outcome still goes into the record books as a scoring finish for the Japanese driver. Hirakawa arrives in F1 with a strong background in endurance racing, having won the Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota, so he’s no stranger to high-pressure motorsport environments. Getting off the mark in his first grand prix weekend, regardless of how the opportunity arose, gives him something to build on as he settles into life with Haas.
Hirakawa steps aside as Camara gets Brazil debut
Ryo Hirakawa was briefly in the frame to replace Esteban Ocon at Haas for the Brazilian Grand Prix, but the seat has gone to Rafael Camara instead. Hirakawa holds a reserve driver role at Haas and is a Toyota protege, which made him a logical candidate once Haas decided Ocon would not race for the team again following a heated argument in Mexico that pushed team principal Ayao Komatsu into pulling the Frenchman from the remainder of the season. Despite Hirakawa’s availability, the team opted to give Camara an early shot at his F1 debut, bringing the Brazilian’s planned 2027 arrival forward to this weekend’s race on home soil. It’s a significant call by Komatsu, prioritising a future race seat holder over an experienced reserve, and it effectively confirms that Hirakawa’s role at the team remains one of support rather than race duty for now. Whether he gets any further opportunities before the season closes out remains to be seen, but for this weekend at least Camara takes the seat and Hirakawa stays on the sidelines.