Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu says the points the team has already scored at the United States Grand Prix are huge in its fight for sixth place in the constructors’ championship.
Kevin Magnussen finished seventh and Nico Hulkenberg eighth in Saturday’s Sprint race to give Haas three points and move it level on points with RB in the standings. Haas is ranked ahead of RB in sixth place due to its higher finishes in grands prix so far this season – a pair of sixth places – and Komatsu says it was an extremely satisfying result even before today’s main event.
“Honestly, scoring P7 and P8 in the Sprint is amazing,” Komatsu told SiriusXM. “We are the fifth quickest car and if you look at our pace at the end of that Sprint against [Sergio] Perez, he wasn’t quicker. That was really satisfying, I think we managed it very well, so that shows that our race pace is good.
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“Qualifying to be honest, we were all a bit deflated and a little bit disappointed because again Nico should have been in Q3, but he locked up twice into Turn 1. And it wasn’t a small mistake, it’s four tenths and five tenths. Then when you look at his Sector 3 he’s again one of the quickest, so the potential is there, and with Nico’s side we didn’t maximize it. So that’s very frustrating to be out in Q2.
“Kevin, I think we have to give him credit. He adapted to the new package very well. He had the old package until the Sprint, so between the Sprint and qualifying we upgraded his car because Nico’s data was very positive. Kevin said with the new package the car is definitely quicker, but still you’ve got to adapt to it, and he’s done it very, very well.
“Getting into Q3 was good, and in Q3 he was already three tenths up but then we got the yellow flag from [George] Russell so he couldn’t better his lap time. But it was a good effort. And I’m really looking forward to the race because I think we have a good race car.”
Komatsu says the result is even more important because Haas was focusing on its performance for Sunday’s grand prix rather than the shorter race.
“It’s huge, absolutely huge. Also at the beginning of the season, or to be honest just coming here for a Sprint weekend, we really focused on the race because the Sprint is only the top eight that scores points, so it’s really difficult to score points. So to actually have both cars in the top eight – P7 and P8 – is testament to everyone’s effort.
“It’s really satisfying. Just a bit disappointing that we couldn’t back it up in qualifying, but I guess it’s good to be a bit disappointed with P9 and P12, and we can definitely go for points with both cars.”