EXCLUSIVE: ‘It’s really crazy to achieve this’ – Camara on joining Haas in 2027 and the ‘intense’ shoot-out test he faced

Rafael Camara has a lot going for him. On track, he's killing it. The reigning F3 champion is currently leading the F2 championship with two rounds to go – and he was sensationally fast in Haas' shoot-out test.

Off track, he compartmentalises the fire and killer instinct needed to extract his racing potential and returns to being a kind, quietly-spoken, genuine 21-year-old.

We meet in a Central London hotel on the day he's announced as a Formula 1 driver. Like all of his soon to be rivals, it's a day that he's been dreaming about his whole life. And unsurprisingly, even though it has been some time since he's been told, it hasn't fully sunk in yet.

"It feels good," he says. "I'm very happy. It's something you've been working your whole life for this moment.

"It's just really crazy to achieve this. I'm just looking forward to start working with the team, to meet everyone in the factory and start as soon as possible."

Brazilian Camara entered the year knowing that if he delivered on his promise, Ferrari – whose junior programme he has been part of since 2021 – would almost certainly find a way to get him on the Formula 1 grid in 2027.

So, he got his head down and focused on trying to hit the ground running in F2 with Invicta Racing and put together a tilt at the title.

At times, a championship charge looked difficult – he was 47 points off the lead at one point – but he never panicked.

"I was just trying to make sure I did everything I could to make sure I would have no regrets this year," he continues. "So obviously I cannot be happier right now."

In a short space of time, he took the championship lead – and found out he would be driving for Haas next year. Alongside his F2 commitments, Ferrari also ploughed on preparing him for his arrival in F1 and that included a private test at the Hungaroring in Hungary in May.

A few months later, he found himself in Haas machinery taking part in an old-fashioned shoot-out test as Haas boss Ayao Komatsu evaluated four young drivers while he contemplated a replacement for Esteban Ocon. It was here that he solidified his chance to step up to F1.

"For sure it was an intense two days," says Camara of the test. "Obviously it was a new track, new team. I went to do the seat fit but obviously I didn't meet everyone, so it was a new environment and for sure it was quite intense.

"You have two days to make sure you are comfortable and you deliver what you need to deliver, and I was just a bit concerned about being a bit tight and not being myself. I just really wanted to make sure I was really enjoying because it was not going to be an opportunity that I would have again."

The Brazilian was able to calm those nerves and enjoy it to the extent that he was delivering lap times, in a range of tricky conditions, that made Komatsu and his engineering team take note. They were particularly impressed at how quickly he was able to extract performance out of the car – and adapt to the different conditions while keeping mistakes to a minimum.

Those are traits that Camara has shown throughout his junior career. On his F3 debut in Melbourne, Australia, he posted the fastest lap on his second push lap in practice, despite never having driven the track before, and then went on to take pole. To be able to commit to a lap in reasonably unfamiliar machinery on a reasonably unfamiliar track was becoming his bread and butter.

"I think I have always been able to extract the most of myself," he says. "These days were really just trying to apply everything that I learned in the years in my single-seater career. Everything that I knew, it's just about putting it in place and making sure I was doing my job."

Camara has made the most of his opportunities. He admits that he was a "bit scared" when he joined the Ferrari junior programme and that he had to work hard to improve his English to in turn improve the way he communicated with the team.

But he threw himself into the challenge and, as a result, he feels like he was "able to learn a lot" and "to grow up not only as a driver but as a person as well" with Ferrari.

Having seen the likes of Charles Leclerc and Ollie Bearman progress from Ferrari juniors to Formula 1 drivers in recent times was also inspiring because he knew that, if he delivered on expectation, there was a strong chance he would get to follow in their footsteps.

Once Komatsu gave him the good news, he told his parents. "I didn't know how to say it to them so I just said quickly – I'll be driving next year," he says laughing. "My dad, he was more emotional. When he came to hug me, it was just... you cannot hold [the emotion], it just comes out."

When he arrives in Formula 1, he'll have some familiar faces around. He's known fellow Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto since he was a kid, racing him in go-karts along with Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar and Arvid Lindblad.

"I have known Gabi since I was seven," he says. "We raced together in Brazil. Then in Europe he was always in the category above but we've always been together.

"We have been very close friends. To see him going [to F1]... for me it was another motivation to keep working and keep pushing so hopefully it would be two of us there – and it will be next year."

For now, though, Camara is resetting his focus to F2 and the final two rounds of the year. He leads Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov by seven points but if he can fend off the Bulgarian, he'll follow in the footsteps of the likes of Bortoleto, Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Leclerc in winning F3 and F2 back-to-back before ultimately making it into Formula 1.

"The aim is to finish on a high," he says. Once that's done and dusted he can switch his attention to the Haas project, with a run in the end-of-season young driver test planned ahead of an intense winter.

"There's a lot of things we need to speak about and organise," he says. "I'll just be waiting for them to tell me what to do – and I'll be ready."