Haas has signed Ferrari junior Rafael Camara to replace Esteban Ocon from the 2027 Formula 1 season.
Is that a good move? What can we expect from Camara, and what does it mean for his 2027 team-mate Ollie Bearman?
Here's what our team thinks:
A fantastic wildcard addition to F1's 2027 grid
Scott Mitchell-Malm
If Rafael Camara is as exciting as I've been told he looked in his Haas F1 test debut, then he is a fantastic wildcard addition to the F1 grid.
His credentials from his junior career make him a worthy graduate anyway. This is a driver who was among the best in karting, and has now pieced together a rare run of consecutive titles higher and higher up the single-seater ladder.
Winning championships is never easy but that alone isn't a guarantee of the kind of ability or traits that will then thrive in F1. The work done in F1 machinery, even in brief opportunities, often counts for far more.
Haas was obviously aware Camara was a promising prospect from his feeder series CV. But, I'm told, it was won over comprehensively when Camara drove its car at Portimao. He was so fast that some in Haas believe that Ollie Bearman - who drove briefly on the day to establish a reference - wouldn't have been as quick even with a proper runplan.
That's not to say Camara is faster or a better prospect than Bearman. But he's that level: rapid, and with an instantly good impression. So it will be fascinating to see if this translates.
Where he's a gamble most is his racecraft and decision-making, which is unpolished based on his Formula 2 error rate - although, ironically, that's something that went for Bearman in his rookie season last year too...
A huge test for Bearman
Ben Anderson
This is the next proper test of Bearman's credentials as a potential future Ferrari F1 driver.
It's almost seemed pre-ordained since he burst onto the scene in Saudi Arabia as the stand-in for Carlos Sainz while Sainz had his appendix removed.
The performances Bearman put up against Nico Hulkenberg, while Kevin Magnussen was suspended and then unwell, only strengthened the feeling Bearman is something special and would eventually replace Lewis Hamilton at the Scuderia.
Bearman has seen off Esteban Ocon fairly comfortably, in terms of raw speed at least. I do think Ocon's greater experience has helped the team, but Ocon isn't overall fast enough, consistently enough, versus Bearman to justify what Haas was paying him, as well as the spiky attitude Ocon apparently had behind the scenes within that team.
Camara brings a new dimension - another highly-rated F2 graduate, with similar Ferrari Academy support that propelled Bearman to F1, and there's the added dynamic of Camara's impressive Testing of Previous Cars performance at Portimao.
Camara hasn't gone properly head-to-head with Bearman yet, but there's no doubt in my mind that (commercial considerations aside) Haas feels it now has a driver on its books that it expects to give Bearman a properly hard time.
If the hype isn't real, then Bearman has nothing to fear, but if Camara is as good as he appears to be from what we've heard so far then Bearman is going to need to find another gear in 2027.
His mission is to stop Camara from becoming the new flavour of the month, ultimately trying to make sure the next new kid on the block doesn't reach Ferrari before he does.
The ideal driver line-up for Haas
Matt Beer
This feels like the ideal driver line-up vibe for a team in Haas's position - a well-established underdog that can score semi-regularly if its drivers maximise their chances and fortune falls its way.
Two drivers trying to climb over each other to prove themselves to F1's most legendary team, which also happens to be the top squad most likely to have a vacancy in the medium-term future given Hamilton's career position. There's everything to fight for and zero risk of complacency.
Plus, Bearman is now relatively experienced enough to lean on as a quasi-leader/benchmark.
Last time Haas went all in on youth for its driver line-up, it was obviously a terrible experience, but a cash-strapped holding pattern year with an undeveloped car driven by Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin was a very different prospect to what Haas has got in store for 2027 with Bearman and Camara.
The fact that it held a proper old-school shootout for the seat with such a varied line-up of candidates makes it an even better story.
Camara has F1's most important trait
Josh Suttill
Camara getting a shot at F1 is richly deserved, and it's the kind of anti-conservatism driver choice that rival teams should take note of.
He's had a fascinating junior career so far, starting off in the (huge) shadow of Kimi Antonelli in Formula 4 and the Formula Regional European Championship.
But Camara didn't panic. He took the slow path, staying in FREC another year, growing as a driver and dominating that season before adding the Formula 3 crown one year later, while Antonelli made his F1 debut.
He arrived in F2 and demonstrated arguably the best raw pace in the category since Charles Leclerc.
There have been rough edges. He's not had the same devastating execution as the likes of Leclerc. But he shares the trait all successful F2-F1 graduates have had: sheer raw pace.
It's that speed that's prompted Haas to take a gamble on him, and it will be that speed that will go a long way to helping Camara establish himself in F1.