Photo via BBC Sport

Hirakawa replaces Ocon for Mexico City Grand Prix

Haas F1 Team has replaced Esteban Ocon with reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa for the remaining sessions of the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend. While Ocon, who is departing the team at the end of the year, participated in Friday's practice, the team announced on Saturday morning that Hirakawa would take over the driving duties for the remainder of the weekend.

Haas officials stated that the replacement was not due to illness, though they provided no specific explanation for the change. 2

This decision follows a Friday afternoon disagreement between Ocon and his race engineer, Laura Mueller, regarding tyre selection during the second practice session. During the radio communications, Mueller instructed Ocon to switch to medium compound tyres for his race simulations, citing a fact that Oliver Bearman's performance on soft tyres was underwhelming.

Ocon expressed his dissatisfaction with his preference for the soft compound.

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