Haas looks set to confirm the news that British teenager Oliver Bearman will race for the small American team from 2025.
Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport, with sources at Haas’ engine and close technical and strategic partner Ferrari, thinks the announcement will be made during the British GP weekend - perhaps as soon as Thursday, July 4.
It is not known whether Haas will also replace incumbent Kevin Magnussen in the other seat, but Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas have clearly been in advanced talks with the team.
Ocon, however, appears more likely to sign with Haas, with Williams boss James Vowles believed to be strongly leaning towards former team driver Bottas’ better-regarded cooperative skills.
Indeed, Pierre Gasly once again hit out at fellow Frenchman Ocon after the pair continued to squabble wheel-to-wheel in Austria.
"I only control what happens in my car," Gasly said. "I can’t control what that guy does with his car. That’s the way it is."
Ocon said in Austria that he was "quite confident" he will still be on the 2025 grid, but added: "I had a bad experience in 2018 when I had two offers on my desk, but in the end I was left on the bench.
"So in Formula 1, you can’t be sure of anything until it happens."
Beyond the driver ’silly season’, other rumours have been swirling since Sunday’s Austrian GP, including whispers of trouble between Sauber CEO Andreas Seidl and new team owner Audi’s F1 project chief Oliver Hoffmann.
That could explain why the Sauber-Audi alliance failed to secure the services of the seat-seeking Carlos Sainz for 2025 and the start of the new works Audi era from 2026.
Also rumoured is that Ocon favoured Haas over Audi, while the Swiss-German alliance also looks set to fail to sign Liam Lawson, as Red Bull prepares to find a seat for him at the junior team RB.
"We wanted to help Daniel (Ricciardo) find his old form so he could come back to Red Bull Racing," Dr Helmut Marko told Viaplay, "but that clearly didn’t work out. So we need to talk about it."
Meanwhile, Adrian Newey has broken his recent period of holiday and silence by revealing that he will decide his post-Red Bull destination by the autumn or winter.
"That’s certainly a target," he told Sky F1, also revealing that he and his wife Amanda recently went on a holiday road trip in an "Aston Martin DB6".
A mischievous Amanda Newey said on X: "We vacationed at Limewood, owned by Jim Radcliffe, arriving in an Aston Martin styled in a Ferrari blue-silver, wearing papaya shorts, for our holiday with Red Bulls to keep us alert."