Haas has announced that Ryo Hirakawa will deputise for Esteban Ocon in FP1 of the 2026 Austrian GP weekend - his first outing of the season.
Hirakawa completed all four of Haas's mandatory FP1 rookie sessions in 2025, after also completing one for Alpine in Japan, and will get his first grand prix experience of '26 on Friday at the Red Bull Ring.
The Japanese racer is set to drive Ocon's VF-26 machine alongside Oliver Bearman in the first of the four sessions Haas must fill in 2026.
It will be the seventh overall FP1 session for Hirakawa in F1, with the 2022 Le Mans winner driving for McLaren in FP1 at the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP.
Hirakawa will be joined by Paul Aron at Audi, Luke Browning at Williams, and Jak Crawford at Aston Martin, at the time of writing.
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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