Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu says it’s imperative the team continues to grow to ensure the existing workforce is not pushed to breaking point. Recent additions to the team have increased the size of Haas to around 330 employees, but due to the …
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu says it’s imperative the team continues to grow to ensure the existing workforce is not pushed to breaking point.
Recent additions to the team have increased the size of Haas to around 330 employees, but due to the number of parts it purchases from external suppliers, that is still deemed to be comfortably the lowest total on the grid. As a comparison, Williams lists its total number of personnel as over 1000, and while Komatsu is proud of the work ethic at Haas he says he doesn’t believe it is operating on a level playing field against its rivals.
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“I don’t think so, because look at the numbers – 330 people, it’s nowhere,” Komatsu said. “What is amazing about this team is we’re asking a lot from everyone. People are doing one or two or three jobs. The TPC … it was so smooth, no issues, everything on time, like we’ve been doing it for five years. But that’s only because people go the extra mile, being proactive and thinking ahead.
“But I feel bad, I can’t rely on that as a baseline, that’s not sustainable. We cannot drive people to a breakdown. We have to increase the resource capability so we can achieve those things without feeling like you’re going to collapse. Every time we try to improve, the minute you think I’m stabilized, we’re doing more, we’re making improvements. It’s challenging for everyone.
“Yes people are motivated because all those things (recruitment and budget) are positive, they can see the team moving forward – that’s why they go the extra mile. But at the same time, we as top management, need to make sure we provide an environment and resource which is sustainable.
“Still so many things we need to do. We finished P7 – we talked about this year’s target. Yes, the target is P6, but we haven’t achieved that consistent result, so even fighting for P6, P7, fighting for the same position that would be a huge achievement.”
Komatsu says Haas will be at the limit of the budget cap this season in a development that means team owner Gene Haas doesn’t have to put in his own money, and the team principal believes his boss fully appreciates what the team is achieving.
“Gene was very happy at the end of last season. Honestly, I thought he’d be unhappy that we couldn’t get P6, but (in Abu Dhabi) I finished the race and then said thank you to the guys, and by the time I walked out of the back of the garage, I already had a message from Gene congratulating us.
“So that was a that was very nice to hear. So I called him and straight away he just said ‘Many congratulations, it’s an amazing achievement’, which honestly you don’t get often from Gene at all!
“So I was pleasantly really surprised and grateful about his comments. But of course, he’s very competitive. You know, he wants more, of course. So, yes, he’s sitting there, always pushing me to set an ambitious target, but my job is really trying to set a realistic target.”
Haas owner Gene Haas does not have to subsidize his Formula 1 team for the first time this year as it hits the budget cap, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu. The American team joined the grid in 2016 and is about to enter its tenth season, …
Haas owner Gene Haas does not have to subsidize his Formula 1 team for the first time this year as it hits the budget cap, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu.
The American team joined the grid in 2016 and is about to enter its tenth season, coming off the back of a strong 2024 when it finished seventh in the constructors’ championship. Komatsu says the commercial gains that have been made in recent years have finally put the team in a position where it is able to operate at the budget cap without its owner’s funding.
“This year is the first time that as a company, Gene doesn’t have to put his own money in,” Komatsu said. “We haven’t been hitting the budget cap, we are hitting it this year. So we have a different challenge of making sure we stay within the budget cap.
“It’s great that we finally got here, but in terms of mindset, it’s the same thing – like trackside engineering, we really had to change the mindset of everyone, what is acceptable and what we have to strive for.
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“It’s the same with this budget thing. Before, if we were under the budget cap, if we had money, we could spend it without worrying about it. Now we have to make sure we stay within the budget cap. So it’s a whole different mindset. But if you want to be competitive, that’s minimum where you should be.
“So, finally, it feels like we’re ticking many boxes – start doing TPC, be on the budget cap and being profitable. With the prize money from last year, sponsorship money etc, this year, Gene shouldn’t have to put his money in. It’s the first time.”
As the smallest team on the grid with roughly 330 personnel, Komatsu acknowledges there must be areas Haas is comfortably outspending rivals given its lower wage bill – such as through outsourcing of parts and car build – but for now those represent the best structure for the team in its current guise.
“Some of it is obvious, right? Maranello and also the external manufacturing, etc. But we made some improvement last year. We are making more improvements this year, so we’ve got to be more efficient.
“All those notional values (are set). But at the moment, let’s say for the foreseeable future – when I say foreseeable future, like next few years at least – even with the notional value deficiency, with the capabilities and resource we have got, that’s the best way to go.
“It’s much better to pay for that extra money deducted from the budget cap limit and buy components from Ferrari. That side of the model, I don’t think it’s an issue at all, whereas there’s some other part of the business that’s inefficient, both in terms of time and then cost. So we’re looking at that.”
Twelve months ago, Ayao Komatsu was pessimistic when discussing Haas’ expectations for the 2024 season. He predicted the team would be the slowest on the grid at the start of the year, and was not in a position to openly admit he had set the team a …
Twelve months ago, Ayao Komatsu was pessimistic when discussing Haas’ expectations for the 2024 season. He predicted the team would be the slowest on the grid at the start of the year, and was not in a position to openly admit he had set the team a target of eighth in the constructors’ championship simply to have something to aim for.
Asked this week how different expectations and targets are now, and the Haas team principal laughs as he reflects on the contrast.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t significant areas of the team Komatsu wants to address. In fact, he’s been hard at work restructuring the trackside organization at Haas and bringing in new personnel over the winter, with one in particular sure to make headlines.
While Ronan O’Hare will look after Oliver Bearman, Laura Mueller will be Esteban Ocon’s race engineer, becoming the first full-time female race engineer in modern Formula 1. Not that the ‘female’ part of that sentence is something Komatsu gave any time to.
“If you look at how many female engineers we have in the office, it’s definitely more than before,” Komatsu says. “But it’s not like I chose Laura because she’s female. We don’t care about nationality, gender – it really doesn’t matter. because what matters is work.
“How you can fit into the team? How you can maximize the performance? And Laura and Ronan happened to be the right people. I believe it is the right choice.”
Mueller has risen through the ranks at Haas, her first F1 team, where she started off as a simulator engineer and then became one of the team’s performance engineers. With both of the new race engineers being relatively inexperienced, the addition of a new chief race engineer in the form of Francesco Nenci – who includes Toyota and Sauber among his previous teams – is seen as particularly crucial to adding further strength to the set-up.
“They have both got good potential and good determination,” Komatsu says. “So we decided to promote internally, because that sends a good message for everyone as well – that rather than going for some big names of experience from outside, promote. Somebody may not have enough experience to start off with, but good potential, good work ethic, good communication… just support each other; help.
“In terms of experience, it’s not a huge amount of experience. So that’s where we really need to work as a team. And then it’s great having Francesco. He’s the one having lots of experience coming in as a chief race engineer.”
With new head of strategy Carine Cridelich coming in from RB in March, and Mark Lowe returning to the team in the new sporting director role – a development that included former team manager Pete Crolla leaving – there has been a significant overhaul of personnel that work hands-on at track.
“What’s been the change is the trackside team,” he says. “It’s a huge change, but I felt that’s one of the weakest areas last year. And then the more and more the car became competitive, kind of that exposed it more, if you like.
Haas exceeded expectations last year, but Komatsu still believes the team is a work in progress. Dom Romney/Motorsport Images
“Then also the mentality as well, in terms of mindset… When you’re fighting, when you have got the car – towards the end of the season, we had the fifth-fastest car – some races like Abu Dhabi was amazing as well, but in terms of execution… we left too many points on the table, from the trackside operation. So really needed to step up on that one.”
The changes were cemented by what Komatsu believes were missed opportunities throughout 2024, coming as early as the first race in Bahrain. Although he acknowledges it was tough to have an impact without adding a chief race engineer or moving on from former race engineers Mark Slade and Gary Gannon, Komatsu also believes a lack of training opportunities played a part, and points to the team’s new testing of previous car (TPC) program as another key development.
Mueller, O’Hare and Nenci were all picking up their roles at Jerez last week as Ocon and Bearman tested the 2023 car, and were able to lay the foundations for their relationships in lower-pressure surroundings than an official pre-season test or race weekend. That the program was up and running just two weeks into the new year shows how much Komatsu wanted to prioritize that aspect of Haas.
The technical team designing the 2025 Haas car – which will run for the first time at Silverstone on February 16 – remains unchanged, as Komatsu believes the likes of technical director Andrea de Sordo, head of aero Davide Paganelli, chief designer Tom Coupland and deputy Jonathan Heal did a “fantastic job” last year. But that came about after focusing on the Maranello-based team first, and knowing the short-term pain of revamping the trackside set-up would need to wait.
“The thing is 12 months ago I had to focus on priority AAA, number one. But even one or two things in priority A – which is the technical side, Andrea’s side, Davide, Tom, Jonathan – we had to really make the organization, and make sure that all the real car feedback is going through the technical office and wind tunnel so that we can develop the car correctly. So that I couldn’t delay a second. I had to really go for that one. I was really focused on that.
“Then lots of other areas that we changed [now], I knew it’s less than ideal, but I cannot change too many things because we’re such a small team with no margin. We’re going to just disintegrate. So I really had to be brutal in terms of, ‘OK, I know these things are not great, but I really need to ignore it until such stage that we can deal with it as a team’.
“And then in my mind – I never said this to anyone back then – it was, ‘We’re going to do this trackside team for a year and then we’ll revamp’. So it’s the right timing, but it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s going to be a huge challenge for us.”
So where does all of that leave Komatsu’s targets for Haas heading into 2025? Despite the initial telling laugh, it’s very much a focus on more of the same.
“Sights (are) set on consistency,” he says. “We finished P7 last year. In the history of Haas, across the years, I don’t think we’ve been competitive across seasons in a similar manner.
“What was encouraging last year was our competitiveness increased through the season. Then we scored the most points in the last quarter of the year. Since Monza, we only missed a point in Brazil. That was encouraging.
“I’d like to continue that level of consistency. But I only expect competition to be tighter this year, Alpine, Williams, Sauber and RB – they are all going to be better as well. So, I don’t know how packed the midfield will be, but I expect it to be tight.”
Haas overachieved compared to its pre-season targets in 2024 despite the late season disappointment of losing out to Alpine for sixth in the constructors’ championship, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu. Alpine’s double-podium result in …
Haas overachieved compared to its pre-season targets in 2024 despite the late season disappointment of losing out to Alpine for sixth in the constructors’ championship, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu.
Alpine’s double-podium result in Brazil proved crucial as it picked up 33 of its 65 points in one race at Interlagos, helping it beat Haas in the standings. With Haas seventh ahead of RB, Williams and Stake, Komatsu said the way the final results panned out do not overshadow the progress made during his first season in charge.
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“Of course we were very disappointed not to get P6, but we gave it everything and it doesn’t just happen at one event, it happens over the course of the season, over the 24 races obviously,” Komatsu told SiriusXM. “So in the end, considering where we’ve come from, we’ve done a very good job to get to P7 with so many points.
“In the end we scored 58 points, and if you look at the last quarter of the season we scored 27, which never happened before. We always would score in the first several races or up to midway, but hardly score any points in the second half of the season because we couldn’t develop the car. But we put that right, we developed the car throughout the season very, very well, and our car got faster and faster and faster.
“The Abu Dhabi qualifying session was the closest we’ve been to pole position – three tenths – and Nico [Hulkenberg] was only eight hundredths from P2. So there’s lots to be positive about, and I’m happy that people recognize that in the team and are happy that we overachieved what we set out to do earlier this year.”
Komatsu said he would definitely have signed up for a seventh-place finish in the standings at the start of the season, given what he had set the team as a goal for 2024.
“100%, because the official target for the team was P8,” he said. “We had to set a target, right? We don’t want to be dead last, and P8 was a realistic target that we set to everyone. I remember in January I said ‘If we achieve P8 at the end of the season we’ve done very, very well, because who are we going to beat?’ You need to beat two teams, who else are we going to beat?
“We are the smallest team, we started this year’s car late and stopped for a couple of months to do the Austin upgrade last year, so we stated from a pretty negative place. How are we going to get to P8? That was the challenge we set ourselves, and honestly I think the boys and girls did an amazing job, so I’m very pleased.”
Haas confirmed Oliver Bearman will complete the remainder of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend in place of the unwell Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen was ruled out of Friday’s running due to sickness, with Bearman stepping in for FP1 and Sprint …
Haas confirmed Oliver Bearman will complete the remainder of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend in place of the unwell Kevin Magnussen.
Magnussen was ruled out of Friday’s running due to sickness, with Bearman stepping in for FP1 and Sprint qualifying, impressing with a run to SQ3 and 10th on the grid ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg. Taking part in Sprint qualifying means Bearman was already going to have to race in the Sprint itself, with the earliest Magnussen could have returned being qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Haas provided an update after Friday’s track action, with Magnussen ruled out of Sunday’s grand prix at Interlagos, and Bearman set for his second start for the team after a substitute appearance in Baku.
“MoneyGram Haas F1 Team can confirm that Kevin Magnussen will not compete in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and Oliver Bearman will race for the team for the remainder of the weekend,” the team said in a statement.
Haas scored points in each of the last five grands prix, a run that stretches to six race events when you include the Sprint at COTA. Magnussen himself finished seventh in Mexico City last weekend in what team principal Ayao Komatsu described as “the best race performance” he had seen from the Dane.
As well as his outing for Haas in Azerbaijan — when he replaced the suspended Magnussen — Bearman has also raced for Ferrari this year, finishing seventh in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in place of the unwell Carlos Sainz.
Kevin Magnussen’s drive to seventh place in the Mexico City Grand Prix was the best performance he has produced for Haas, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu. Haas entered Sunday’s race off the back of scoring in five straight events, including …
Kevin Magnussen’s drive to seventh place in the Mexico City Grand Prix was the best performance he has produced for Haas, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu.
Haas entered Sunday’s race off the back of scoring in five straight events, including the Sprint in Austin, and lined up with Magnussen seventh on the grid and Nico Hulkenberg 10th. Magnussen did not lose a position in the race and kept a fast-charging Oscar Piastri at bay in the closing laps, ending up just four seconds behind sixth-placed Max Verstappen.
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“Singapore, I expected him to be strong and we didn’t quite get there, but then in Austin he was so strong,” Komatsu told SiriusXM. “He was strong in the Sprint, he was strong in the race, but we didn’t operate correctly as a race team in the race so he should have scored points in the main race as well.
“Here (in Mexico), from FP1, he was strong. And it’s very difficult to put a lap together here in qualifying, but when it counted, when the pressure was on in Q3, his lap was amazing.
“Then to deliver this race performance, I think this is the best race performance I’ve seen from Kev. Especially in that second stint, once Piastri was behind us, his pace was incredible. He was quicker than Max!
“We are looking at [the gap to Verstappen]. Of course we are completely focused on beating Piastri, you don’t get too greedy, but it just doesn’t take away from the fact that it was just amazing. In Sector 1 I remember watching sometimes Kevin was taking three tenths out of Max, but we were constantly telling him the gap to Piastri because we knew Piastri had something in reserve, which he did.
“A couple of laps from the end he closed at a second a lap, but it was just an incredible drive, such consistency. I think every single lap was like qualifying. It was amazing.”
Magnussen himself said he was proud to be able to capitalize on Haas’s improving form Haas is showing, and with to be able to respond to missing out on points in the main race at COTA.
“Only just!” Magnussen said of beating Piastri. “It was very tight and I knew when he was sort of [going to arrive] – with 20 laps to go I could do the math and say ‘OK, it’s going to be a tough one’. But the tires just lasted really well, so his tires went off more than mine. He was still quicker than me at the end, but he just stopped catching up that fast, so we just about managed to keep him at bay.
“I think it’s nice to get the maximum out of this weekend while we had the strength and real competitiveness – it’s good to capitalize on that. We didn’t feel like we did that last week, we scored points in the Sprint but completely made a blunder in the race, so really good to come back from that.
“I’m very proud. It’s been some turnaround for this team, I think there’s a bright future ahead for Haas.”
Being able to run a testing program using an old Formula 1 car will allow Haas to add strength in depth with its personnel, team principal Ayao Komatsu says. Haas has entered into a technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing where the American …
Being able to run a testing program using an old Formula 1 car will allow Haas to add strength in depth with its personnel, team principal Ayao Komatsu says.
Haas has entered into a technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing where the American team will receive manufacturing support and include the establishment of a new simulator. Part of the agreement will also have Toyota personnel helping Haas run a Testing of Previous Car (TPC) program, that Komatsu says will have a big impact on the team as a whole.
“TPC is very important in terms of training personnel,” Komatsu said. “We have just over 300 people, we have no contingency in personnel, so if lets say one race engineer, one performance engineer decides to leave or has a program not to attend a race then we are really struggling.
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“We are on the limit all the time, and in order to improve the organization you cannot be at that kind of survival stage as a baseline. We’ve got to build up our organization, so through TPC we can start training our engineers, our mechanics, and having back-up people there.
“Of course the budget cap makes it more complicated in a way that we’re going to do it as a timesheet, so people dealing with heritage – i.e. TPC – is outside the cap, but many of those people have to cross over to the race team and beyond a certain percentage we have to include them in the budget cap.
“So that detail we need to do correctly, but in terms of building up an organization, having a contingency, having a capacity, younger people, for me TPC is the best environment.”
Toyota young drivers will be involved in driving during TPC running, but at this stage Komatsu does not envisage personnel from Toyota Gazoo Racing crossing over onto the race team itself.
“It’s not because we don’t want to. Whoever’s got the right personnel, we’ll put in the race team. You may or may not know certain senior recruitment (positions) in the race team have been really (difficult to fill). If say TGR have a person who fits that profile, I’d have taken him or her straight away. But at the moment they haven’t. So we are not taking any TGR personnel for the race team but that’s not because that’s the philosophy, we just take whoever’s the best fit for the job.
“As for TPC, again, to do it by ourselves takes a lot of investment. But TGR is supporting that hugely. They have a desire to develop their young drivers in the program to gain mileage. Their requirement and our requirement fits together.
“In the clear sense, if we wanted to do 20 days of TPC next year, we can. Whether we want to do 20 days or not is another matter. We have to be sustainable, we’ve got to move in a manner that is still efficient and focused. It’s not about number of days, never. We are going to come up with a proper program and scheduling and then do whatever we are required to do.
“To do a TPC program we are employing some people as Haas F1 Team personnel, but TGR will be providing some personnel as well. So it will be a completely collaborative mixture and effort, which is what we need.”
Haas’ new technical partnership with Toyota comes with the support of Ferrari and will enhance the existing agreements, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu. Toyota Gazoo Racing has become an official technical partner of Haas, in a deal …
Haas’ new technical partnership with Toyota comes with the support of Ferrari and will enhance the existing agreements, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu.
Toyota Gazoo Racing has become an official technical partner of Haas, in a deal includes the manufacturing of parts and a simulator set-up, but Komatsu said that nothing from the team’s existing Ferrari relationship will change.
“We are going to continue to use the Maranello wind tunnel, and regarding our own gearbox, that is not what we are thinking,” Komatsu said. “As long as regulations permit, we will buy the gearbox from Ferrari. Our partnership with Toyota is not to replace our Ferrari partnership.
“The Ferrari-Haas partnership is the foundation and it is always going to be the foundation. This partnership is not to take away from it but enhance that fundamental partnership with Ferrari. What we have with Ferrari, what we get from Ferrari, is amazing. It’s the foundation of Haas F1 Team. But areas Toyota can help us is outside of that.
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“We’ve been transparent with Ferrari management from the early stage of this discussions. Clear understanding of what engagement we have with TGR and how we will protect IP of each company.”
Komatsu said that being open with Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur from the start of talks with Toyota was key to ensuring both companies were happy with the agreement.
“In terms of talks and finalizing the agreement et cetera, to be honest it was relatively straightforward,” he said. “:We’ve been working with Ferrari since day one so we understand each other very well, and I’ve always been talking with Fred from the very early stages of this idea for the collaboration.
“Like I said, the Ferrari-Haas relationship is the foundation, so I went in with the complete mindset that they need to really understand that one. Let’s say if they feel any threat, that the Toyota-Haas alliance would be a threat to them, that’s not going to work. So I made sure that that is not the case. And then through [Masaya] Kaji-san, Toyota was totally on board and clear from day one.
“I think honestly, the key is being transparent and clear in terms of engagement, in terms of parameters, from day one, so that all parties are informed. Of course Ferrari sent us certain requirements, certain bullet points, where I had to guarantee them that ‘Look, we are continuing this and this and this’ but that’s what we were going to do anyway. So it was very straightforward really, and very collaborative from all sides.”
Manufacturing of the Haas chassis is also currently outsourced to Italian company Dallara, and Komatsu says the agreement will continue but there could be areas where certain components come under Toyota’s remit.
“Again, Dallara is our important partner, they’ve been with us from day one, they’ve been building our chassis since day one,” he said. “So that’s another key important relationship, and again in due course we’ll be discussing which parameters we will keep working with Dallara, which parameters we’ll work with Toyota. It will co-exist, it is not replacing one with the other.
“Of course we keep the Maranello design office, because again, nothing changes in that we buy the gearbox and suspension from Ferrari, so to that extent it makes sense to have our design office in Maranello. And we continue to use the Ferrari wind tunnel, so our aerodynamicists will continue to be based there.
“But for instance we will start designing some other carbon composite parts by ourselves and also start doing some testing and sim work, some other areas, to contribute to the performance of the car. Where we house them exactly, whether Maranello or UK, is something we will decide in the future. But again, I just like to stress it’s not to replace what we have with Ferrari.”
Haas has been fighting a losing battle for a lot of its recent history in Formula 1. COVID in particular hit the team hard, and after it turned to pay drivers, the narrative formed that this was a team on the verge of going out of business. …
Haas has been fighting a losing battle for a lot of its recent history in Formula 1. COVID in particular hit the team hard, and after it turned to pay drivers, the narrative formed that this was a team on the verge of going out of business.
Financially, it was never in trouble. Owner Gene Haas made sure of that, but he did retain what could be described as an extremely measured approach when it came to the money he was putting into the team. That much was made clear when he replaced Guenther Steiner with Ayao Komatsu and told the new team principal that if he saw value and a return in terms of improved performance, he would increase his investment.
Haas felt he was already giving the team what it needed to do better than it was, and in 2024 that has shown to be a well-founded assumption. Whether fortunes were on course to improve regardless of the team principal switch will never be known, but the car developed for this year is a clear step forward, and that momentum has continued ever since Komatsu took over responsibility.
But some things take longer than others. A new motorhome, for example, has been signed off that is currently being prepared for the start of the European season in 2025. There could even be a new factory in the future if the right site can be found. But many of those projects have been green-lit because of the on-track performance.
Today’s announcement that Toyota will become a technical partner is designed to ensure that performance continues to trend in the right direction.
Toyota – through its motorsport competition and research and development division called Toyota Gazoo Racing – can provide Haas with a shortcut at this stage of the team’s evolution.
Speaking to Komatsu as the partnership has been discussed and finalized, the team principal acknowledges where Haas is lacking compared to its competitors. There are no small teams on the F1 grid anymore, but Haas is the smallest in terms of personnel, and that means it is limited in terms of its resources.
It’s not for a lack of finance, but when you only have so many people available to do the work, you have the infrastructure to match. Haas and Komatsu both want to expand, but to hire the right people, invest in the equipment and increase all of those technical capabilities can take a number of years.
As an example, just look at Aston Martin and how long it was between breaking ground on its factory – in September 2021 – and the fact it is still to complete the entire project, plus the wait it faced for some of the key technical hires it made, and you can see the timeline is not weeks.
But in Toyota, Haas has a way of fast-tracking many areas of its growth.
Toyota might not be in F1 anymore, but it still has an F1-level technical facility that serves as the base for its WEC Hypercar program and can be put to good use for Haas. JEP/Motorsport Images
There doesn’t need to be a major investment in hardware because Toyota already has world class facilities for its motorsport department. Capital expenditure can be planned more effectively without the need to rush through certain items, and fewer personnel need to be hired because of the expertise already in place from the Japanese automotive giant.
The agreement focuses on Toyota’s ability to provide design, technical and manufacturing services, while Haas has the most relevant and up-to-date F1 experience from a technical point of view, as well as the platform to exploit commercially.
Over its time in F1 so far, a significant portion of the Haas car has been designed and manufactured by Dallara in Italy, but the team has taken on more responsibility as it has chased a more efficient structure. And it’s on that front – rather than from a powertrain point of view – that Toyota can stake a claim to produce high-quality components within a short timeframe.
There’s also the ability to set Haas up with its own simulator project at its headquarters in Banbury, rather than relying on the availability of the Ferrari simulator in Maranello. On top of that, Haas has been unable to run a recent car as allowed by the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) regulations, but will now have the capacity to do so.
Ferrari will remain the technical partner supplying Haas with its power units until at least the end of the 2028 season – a recently-announced extension that came with the Scuderia’s knowledge of the future plans with Toyota – and at this stage there are no indicators that Toyota would be interesting in expanding its involvement to involve engine technology.
“Vehicle development” is a term that came up from Gazoo Racing Company president Tomoya Takahashi; a catch-all phrase that could be as broad or as narrow as required moving forward.
But from Toyota’s point of view, partnering with Haas is a way back into the fold where it can expand its knowledge and experience within F1. Whether that is solely to help train its personnel and improve its understanding of the technologies involved – areas that can benefit other areas of the business – or if that evolves into a greater commitment in future remains to be seen. Either way, it would be foolish to think it’s going into this partnership with its eyes closed to the possibilities.
For now, there’s an existing team that has managed to put itself in the frame to finish as high as sixth in the F1 constructors’ championship this year, despite its size. Bulking up with Toyota’s support gives Haas the ability to take on many more projects – both related to future cars, and other aspects such as testing programs – in the short term.
The 2026 regulations are all-but-finalized and teams can start aerodynamic work in a little over two months’ time. The impact of the Toyota partnership will be felt even before that.
The challenge for Komatsu now will be ensuring the seamless integration of the two organizations to ensure there’s not a drop-off in performance before the benefits are felt, but Toyota can certainly provide Haas with greater capacity as it tackles that new generation of car in a way that wasn’t possible by simply investing in its own infrastructure.
This feature has been updated to include additional details.
Kevin Magnussen was left “flat out, just completely confused” by the penalty he received in the Italian Grand Prix that triggered a race ban. The Haas driver attempted to overtake Pierre Gasly into the second chicane, but locked up and the pair …
Kevin Magnussen was left “flat out, just completely confused” by the penalty he received in the Italian Grand Prix that triggered a race ban.
The Haas driver attempted to overtake Pierre Gasly into the second chicane, but locked up and the pair banged wheels, both running wide and continuing. Magnussen was handed a 10s time penalty for causing a collision, with the standard two penalty points that came with it taking him to a total of 12 and triggered a one-race suspension for the next event in Baku.
“I’m frustrated about the penalty — I don’t understand it at all,” Magnussen said. “Flat out, just completely confused. We raced hard into Turn 4, we had slight contact and we both missed the corner, we came back on track again, no damage to either car, no consequence in the race for either of us and I get a 10s penalty.
“Then lap one, [Daniel] Ricciardo and Nico [Hulkenberg]… Ricciardo put Nico on the grass at 300kmh, completely destroyed Nico’s race, massive consequence and damage to Nico’s car and he gets a 5s penalty. Where is the logic? I just don’t get it.”
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The time penalty still didn’t demote Magnussen out of the points, dropping him from ninth to 10th, just 0.1s ahead of Fernando Alonso in the final classification. As he was speaking immediately after getting out of the car, he admitted he hadn’t seen the official document from the stewards yet confirming his ban, but had been true to his word that he wouldn’t change the way he raced in order to try and get the best result.
“I only know I have the two points from you; I haven’t heard it officially,” he said to the media. “But I said all the time I am not going to hold back. It doesn’t make sense. I scored a point today, so see you later.”
Team principal Ayao Komatsu confirmed to SiriusXM that Oliver Bearman was the likely replacement for Magnussen in Azerbaijan, but that he would need final approval from Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur.
“It’s a time penalty so we cannot do anything,” Komatsu said. “We just accept it and then just have to put a plan in place. It’s a shame because [at] Baku, I think Kev would be really strong. That’s a circuit where he’s strong, so it’s a shame.
“I cannot say [if Bearman will drive] at this minute; I need to get confirmation from Fred. It’s [TBD].”
