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Haas has confirmed that Ryo Hirakawa will take over Esteban Ocon’s VF-26 for first practice at the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix, giving the Japanese driver his first Formula 1 weekend outing of the season.
The session at the Red Bull Ring will mark Hirakawa’s seventh FP1 appearance in Formula 1 and his first grand prix weekend involvement of 2026. He will run alongside Oliver Bearman in the opening practice session, as Haas begins to work through its required rookie-driver commitments for the campaign.
Hirakawa’s Austrian GP run is the first of four FP1 sessions Haas must allocate in 2026. The team has opted for a familiar figure: Hirakawa completed all four of Haas’s mandatory FP1 rookie sessions in 2025, in addition to an outing for Alpine in Japan.
That continuity gives Haas a known reference point as it hands over Ocon’s car for Friday practice. While FP1 opportunities are limited and highly structured, they remain valuable for both team and driver, particularly when a team is managing its mandated rookie running without compromising the rhythm of a race weekend.
For Hirakawa, the Red Bull Ring appearance adds another Formula 1 entry to a varied FP1 record. Before his Haas work, the 2022 Le Mans winner also drove for McLaren in first practice at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hirakawa will not be the only non-race driver appearing in opening practice at the Austrian Grand Prix. At the time of writing, Paul Aron is set to run for Audi, Luke Browning for Williams, and Jak Crawford for Aston Martin.
Crawford’s outing has already been confirmed as part of Aston Martin’s own young-driver allocation, with more detail available in our report on how Jak Crawford will replace Lance Stroll in Austrian GP FP1.
The concentration of FP1 substitutions gives Friday’s first session an added layer of interest. For the race teams, it is a balancing act between fulfilling obligations and collecting useful running. For the drivers stepping in, it is a rare chance to operate inside a live grand prix environment, with the pressure and precision that brings.
Haas’s decision places Hirakawa back in a car he knows from recent FP1 experience, this time in Ocon’s VF-26. The assignment is straightforward but significant: deliver clean, productive running and help Haas open its Austrian Grand Prix weekend without disruption.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.
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