While conceding that last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix was a missed opportunity to score points, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu believes it was a demonstration of an upward trajectory in potential for the rest of the 2024 season.
Haas has scored in two of the first four races — including double points in Australia — but missed out at Suzuka where Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th. The German was 5.5 seconds behind Yuki Tsunoda at the checkered flag, having taken the restart after an early red flag in 10th place but gone rapidly backwards before Turn 1 and been left with significant ground to make up.
“Nico’s first start was very good, he made positions, but the second start he just didn’t drop the clutch correctly, so the anti-stall [kicked in] and he lost loads of positions,” Komatsu said. “So considering he came back from P18 or whatever it was to P11, 5.5s behind Tsunoda, if he can do that from there, if he didn’t have that mistake for sure he would have scored points.
“So that is frustrating and a missed opportunity. But the positive side is this circuit, in race four, is the worst for us so far. I always said we need to do four or five races to see where the car is. This [Suzuka] is the worst circuit by far, and if on the worst circuit you can do this, that’s very positive.”
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Kevin Magnussen also had his race compromised by losing positions during a pit stop, but in analyzing the overall form of Haas in the opening four rounds, Komatsu says the team can be encouraged even if it’s clear where improvements are needed.
“Ultimately, as you can see, high-speed downforce, we haven’t got enough,” he said. “So that’s what we need to improve, and then certain characteristics on front axle of the car we need to improve. But honestly, this is our worst circuit, so the encouraging thing is we can race this much on this circuit. I wasn’t expecting that.
“[In qualifying] I was staring at trying to get just one car into Q2, and for Nico to deliver P12 was amazing. I still felt it was going to be really tough even to stay in that position. But we went backwards once and he managed to recover that well — it was good.
“Operationally it wasn’t great, Kevin losing two positions. If it wasn’t for that I think Kevin had a very good chance to stay in front of Tsunoda, and for sure Nico without that disastrous start would have scored points. So that is really positive.”