The almost-forgotten rule that could send Ocon back to Haas

Haas management seemingly wants nothing more to do with Esteban Ocon after the events of recent months, particularly the Mexican Grand Prix. Under certain circumstances, however, the team will have to put him back in the cockpit. A forgotten article in the sporting regulations, which prevents a team from fielding more than four drivers in a single season, could force its hand.

Haas started the season with Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon. However, it made an unplanned switch to reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa following Friday’s argument with Ocon in Mexico. With Hirakawa scheduled to contest a WEC race on the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, in which he clinched the championship, Rafael Câmara made his debut earlier than Haas had originally planned.

The American team has therefore already fielded four drivers in races. As motorsport-total.com pointed out, that is the maximum permitted under Article B1.7.1 of the F1 sporting regulations. “During a Championship each Competitor will be permitted to use a maximum of four (4) drivers in Races.”

This has not posed a problem in recent decades, so the rule has been somewhat forgotten. The most recent teams to reach the limit were AlphaTauri in 2023 and Toro Rosso in 2017. Look further back through history and there are more such examples.

• AlphaTauri 2023: Nyck de Vries, Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda
• Toro Rosso 2017: Daniil Kvyat, Carlos Sainz, Brendon Hartley, Pierre Gasly
• Caterham 2014: Marcus Ericsson, Kamui Kobayashi, André Lotterer, Will Stevens
• HRT 2010: Karun Chandhok, Christian Klien, Sakon Yamamoto, Bruno Senna
• Ferrari 2009: Felipe Massa, Luca Badoer, Giancarlo Fisichella, Kimi Räikkönen
• Spyker 2007: Adrian Sutil, Christijan Albers, Markus Winkelhock, Sakon Yamamoto
• Super Aguri 2006: Takuma Sato, Yuji Ide, Franck Montagny, Sakon Yamamoto
• McLaren 2005: Kimi Räikkönen, Juan Pablo Montoya, Pedro de la Rosa, Alex Wurz
• Williams 2004: Juan Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, Marc Gené, Antônio Pizzonia
• Toyota 2004: Cristiano da Matta, Ricardo Zonta, Jarno Trulli, Olivier Panis
• Jordan 2001: Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Ricardo Zonta, Jarno Trulli, Jean Alesi
• Prost 2001: Jean Alesi, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Gastón Mazzacane, Luciano Burti, Thomas Enge

To find a team that fielded five drivers, however, we have to go back to 2001, when Prost ran Jean Alesi, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Gastón Mazzacane, Luciano Burti and the only Czech driver to have raced in Formula 1, Tomáš Enge.

The regulations at the time did allow this: “During a season, each team is allowed one driver change for its first car, and for its second car it may use three drivers who can be exchanged at any time,” stated the 2001 regulations. It was not until 2004 that these rules were amended to their current form.

A bitter reconciliation

Rafael Câmara can also race for Haas at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but the team faces a slightly more complicated situation in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Câmara has the final two Formula 2 rounds to contest, with the championship title at stake in his battle with Nikola Tsolov.

That leaves Haas with only Hirakawa and Ocon available. If Hirakawa is unable or unwilling to travel to the Middle East for any reason, the letter of the regulations would require the team to make peace with Esteban Ocon, at least for a few days.

The FIA reserves the right under the regulations to grant an exemption in cases of “force majeure”, such as injury or illness affecting several of a team’s drivers. But would it also consider a falling-out between a team boss and a driver to be “force majeure”? What is currently a theoretical question could become a real one in a few days.

Rafael Câmara revealed in Sao Paulo that he does not yet have a clear plan for the rest of the season, so it is not entirely certain that he will complete the F2 campaign. “I don’t know. We’ll see. There will be a lot of things to discuss after this weekend. But whatever will be, I will be happy in doing. I’m doing what I love to do; that is driving. So both of the cases will be good.”

Câmara returning to Formula 2 and winning the title would also help Racing Bulls. Red Bull’s junior team could then keep Tsolov in the championship for another year, rather than having to find him another series or drop Liam Lawson.