Tag: Ayao Komatsu

Ayao Komatsu says Haas team owner Gene Haas is already increasing his investment in the team as it looks to continue a strong start to the 2024 season at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Komatsu’s predecessor as team principal, Guenther Steiner, left over the winter and pointed to a lack of investment in the team’s infrastructure as one of the areas of disagreement that led to his departure. In being announced as a Miami Grand Prix ambassador last week, Steiner stated Haas is performing well with what it has this year but does “not have a vision for the next step.” However, Komatsu — who took over as team principal in January –says he has already seen further commitments from the team owner.

“I got appointed officially on January 10th, and Gene’s message from day one was absolutely clear,” Komatsu said. “He said he’s got money, he will invest it, but we’ve got to show him we can use the money responsibly and efficiently. He doesn’t want to see waste. There’s a reason he’s a billionaire — he doesn’t like to waste money!

“There’s so many areas that we can improve, so that’s why I wasn’t too worried about his initial message of, ‘Come on, you guys, need to show me you are using my money responsibility, then get to a certain position, then I’ll think about investment.’ But I know for a fact that he will invest when we get to that stage.

“Already he’s commissioned a new motorhome for next year — which is not a small investment — so we are doing that. And also we are now recruiting, for our size of people, a decent chunk of new recruitment has been approved. So Gene is now actioning what he told me. So I’m not worried that he’s not going to invest. He will invest, but we’ve got to do our part, which is to use his money responsibility.”

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Komatsu admits car performance had no impact on some aspects of the additional investment, but other areas have continued as he is able to show he is spending Haas’ budget in an efficient way.

“No, the motorhome was already approved before we ran the car,” Komatsu admitted, off the back of point-scoring finishes in two of the first three races. “Gene just said to me ‘You’ve got to use this money more wisely,’ so that’s what I’m trying to do. It’s just step-by-step — nothing happens overnight, but Gene and his right-hand man are very engaged and very supportive.

“Honestly, this new recruitment helps. The number of people is quite big for our size of team. It might not be for Mercedes, but they approved everything. So we are just slowly trying to get the trust back, if you like.”

Haas was ahead of schedule during pre-season testing and has a car that could be more competitive in races than first expected, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu.

Haas finish bottom of the constructors’ championship standings after a tough 2023, often showing strong pace in qualifying but struggling in races. After taking over from Guenther Steiner in the off-season, before seeing the car run Komatsu had warned that the start to this year could be tough, but now is more positive about how the start to track running has gone.

“Very good, really good,” Komatsu told RACER. “It’s not perfect, but I would say pretty decent. Everybody’s focused on what we needed to achieve coming away from these three days of testing, so based on that we formulated our program, executed it, and the last couple of days have gone very, very well. We achieved our objectives, so much so that we adjusted yesterday’s program actually.

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“So we are ahead of where we absolutely needed to be for the test program. Kevin (Magnussen) completed a first qualifying simulation and race simulation in the morning, Nico (Hulkenberg) took over and completed a race simulation too, so progress has been great.”

With that assessment, Komatsu admits he has been pleasantly surprised with the performance Haas has been able to get out of its 2024 car, pointing to driver confidence as one of the main factors.

“Only next week will tell, so I don’t really want to say too much without being fully confident, but what I am seeing is encouraging. The fact that I’m telling you that we are ahead in terms of the test program tells you it is slightly better than what I expected, if you like.

“I think that’s because the fundamental base of the car, and consistency, even though you can see on the GPS trace we are still lacking lots of downforce – in the high-speed corners we are slow – but in terms of characteristics, consistency, predictability, there is an improvement.

“So that’s something that both Nico and Kevin can get the most out of more consistently, which they couldn’t do last year. So that’s been a decent improvement.”

Magnussen himself shared Komatsu’s sentiments, saying he’s feeling progress from the car in race trim.

“We’ve been doing a lot of high-fuel race running, trying to address that issue, and I think we’re going somewhere,” Magnussen said. “We haven’t fixed the issue completely but hopefully it’s enough to make a difference on Sunday. I expect it to be very close between all teams again this year.”

New Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu believes the team has “got to grow organically” rather than chase a big step forward from major investment.

Guenther Steiner’s contract was not renewed by Gene Haas as the team owner was unhappy with recent performances, while Steiner wanted to attract fresh investment to help the team improve its infrastructure and facilities. With the majority of teams on the grid investing heavily — particularly Haas’ main rivals Williams, Stake and the newly rebranded AlphaTauri — Komatsu (pictured above with driver Kevin Magnussen) says he’s unfazed by what others are doing and feels Haas needs to take a more considered approach.

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“I don’t know if I’d call it a concern,” Komatsu said. “Of course, it’s a very tough business, but I’m still very positive about what we can do with the current setup, and then as we improve on the current setup, certain things I think will become pretty obvious and natural that, OK, we need to divert slightly from our original model in this way, or we need to invest in this way.

“So that will come up naturally, rather than forcing it. I’m not here to turn the place upside down, because then the operating will stop. If we tried to suddenly to go for [changes] — even if we had massive investment straight away, we won’t be functioning properly, we won’t be using that investment properly. So you’ve got to grow organically, I think.

“OK, we were not where we should be in 2023, that’s why Gene decided to make changes,” he noted. “But you cannot then suddenly go for a huge leap, because then 2024 will be a complete disaster. We’ve got to improve the team in 2024. I see it as a transitional phase. And then whatever we learn across the course of the year in 2024, I’m sure that will help us very clearly define what we’re doing in five, eight, 10 years’ time.”

However, Komatsu also insists Haas is not only focused on 2026 as a chance to move forward, believing that team owner made a management change to show the rest of the team he wants to improve more quickly.

“Gene at the moment wants to get off the back of the grid. Obviously you saw and heard how unhappy Gene was. Of course, who’s going to be happy competing in last place? It really is embarrassing. So I think it’s positive that Gene is unhappy where we are.

“If the people in the team think, ‘OK, we’re last, and we’re not sure where we’re going. Gene doesn’t say anything, then OK, is Gene happy just making up numbers and being P10?’ That’s clearly not the case. So that’s actually motivating for everyone here. ‘OK, Gene is serious, he wants to improve the team, so let’s do it together.’”