Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu says there will be news about the future driver line-up “soon,” with two vacancies still to be filled for 2025.
The driver market has slowed down in recent months, with Nico Hulkenberg’s future move from Haas to Stake the last change announced in Miami. Since then there’s been the confirmation of Sergio Perez, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll all staying with their current teams, but with Hulkenberg to replace and Kevin Magnussen out of contract, Komatsu says Haas will finalize at least one of those seats in the near future.
“The decision is not made over one race,” Komatsu told SiriusXM about Magnussen’s future. “It’s made over the course of the season, or what he has been doing for us for the last two and a half seasons, or even more.
“Of course there’s no complaints [in Austria]; his race was amazing. His sprint race was amazing, his qualifying was strong, and then the race was great. It’s a great result for Kevin as well as the team.”
With Oliver Bearman carrying out plenty of FP1 running for Haas and a heavy favorite for a drive in 2025, Magnussen is facing competition from the likes of Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas for his place. Pushed on when one of the seats will be announced, Komatsu added: “You will find out soon!”
Magnussen scored points in eighth place in the Austrian Grand Prix behind teammate Nico Hulkenberg in sixth, giving Haas its best return since the same event in 2022. Hulkenberg passing by Perez on the final lap and then re-passing the Red Bull driver, led Komatsu to admit it was a result beyond his hopes.
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“Absolutely not sixth and eighth,” he said. “Obviously our target was always to score with both cars, so ninth and tenth we were going for. Honestly, especially with Nico holding off Perez in those closing moments on merit, it was unbelievable. I’m so happy for everyone in the team.
“We knew that Perez was going to have two goes at it, because of course everybody listens to everyone else’s team radios, right? Nico was clever enough to know that was the opportunity out of Turn 3 and into Turn 4, so he just judged it to perfection. Absolutely amazing.
“You can see from the pace in the last part of the first stint…that our pace was similar to Perez, so if [there was] similar tire age, I knew we could fight. But…to be fighting against a Red Bull, what more can you ask for?
“I’m pretty happy. The strategy was good and communication was pretty good. We had that close moment after the first round of pit stops where Kevin overtook Nico and Nico locked up and again we handled that very well. Straight afterwards we addressed it.
“Even when we were stuck behind Max’s car in the second stint, we were a lap behind but we were stuck. Again, Kevin came closer, but we said, ‘No, you are not fighting each other; just look after your tires.’ We just worked as a team very well and execution was good, communication was good. I’m just so happy with this result for everyone in the team.”