Esteban Ocon: Haas replace French driver with Ryo Hirakawa for remainder of Mexico City GP weekend without providing reason
Esteban Ocon has been replaced by Ryo Hirakawa at Haas for the remainder of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The team provided no reason for replacing Ocon, but confirmed the Frenchman was not suffering from illness.
Ocon vented his frustrations on the team radio while finishing 13th following second practice and will take no further part in the race as Hirakawa will take his place on the grid at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Ocon questioned the team's decision to run him on the medium rather than soft tyre during second practice on Friday.
The Frenchman pleaded "don't do this to me" to his race engineer Laura Mueller after being informed of a change to his run-plan.
Haas recently confirmed that Ocon will be leaving the team at the end of this season after two years with the American-owned squad.
A team statement read: "TGR Haas F1 Team reserve driver Ryō Hirakawa will replace Esteban Ocon for the remainder of the weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix, Saturday 31 October - Sunday 1 November.
"Hirakawa (32), a two-time winner of the FIA World Endurance Championship (2022, 2023) and 24 Hours of Le Mans Winner (2022) with Toyota GAZOO Racing, participated in FP1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Friday 30 October - his third free practice outing of the season driving the VF-26, finishing 15th overall."The Japanese driver will partner teammate Ollie Bearman through final practice and qualifying on Saturday and Sunday's 71-lap grand prix - Hirakawa's Formula 1 race debut."
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