Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu is proud of the improvement his team made in the season after they endured their “lowest of the low” moment.
Komatsu replaced Guenther Steiner as team principal at Haas one year ago today. In the previous season, the team slumped to last in the championship.The final races of 2023 were an especially tough time for the team as an intended upgrade they introduced at their home race in Austin failed to provide the forecast gains in performance. Komatsu admitted the team made a mistake by leaving it so late in the year to introduce such a major upgrade.
“Austin last year was the lowest point, one of the lowest points of this team,” he told Epartrade. “To do a race 19 [18] update, that didn’t make sense.
“Then we did it, and of course the car didn’t go quicker, the car actually went slower.”
In 2024, Haas’s first season under Komatsu, the team rose to seventh in the constructors’ championship, Alpine narrowly beating them to sixth. He said the result was “much, much better than anybody anticipated.”
“Coming from that low, lowest of the low, to having such a positive vibe in the team, working well as a team, I think we came a long way,” said Komatsu. “I think everybody’s looking ahead, which is great.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
He admitted the team had been “pretty down” after Alpine took sixth place off them late last year, “but in a way it’s good to be down being dropped from P6 to P7 because we are there fighting.”
“Guenther’s done a lot for the team,” he said. “He was instrumental in setting up the team. Without Guenther, this team [wouldn’t] exist. I have huge respect for that.
“I’ve been with the team since 2016, day one of the racing year. Of course Guenther was there from before, to set up the team. But I joined in January 2016 so I know the team pretty well, I know the people, I know the strengths and the weaknesses of the organisation.
“The last five years we haven’t been performing. There’s certain frustrations, things that I thought we can do better if we implemented certain things here and there. So that was really, for me, an opportunity to see or implement those things, to see if my assumption was right or if I was wrong.
“Then honestly, like I said, I believed in the people we got and then those guys proved me right. I tried my best to give them the environment for them to perform, put upgrades on the car that works and then hats off to them, they delivered.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
However Komatsu believes the team was already close to the limit of what it could achieve and it needed its new technology deal with Toyota to raise its level further.
“Certain things I had to do immediately. I was pretty sure [that] without any further investment in terms of resource or facility, we can perform better as a team. So that’s a bit I had to get going straight away.
“But in the background, you had to raise the ceiling of the team. I was thinking, how is the best way to do this? And then in pretty early days, from Bahrain time, I started talking with Toyota.
“The initial, of course, idea was a bit blurred, if you like. But then the more we talked together, it was pretty clear that this is a perfect match, that if we do this collaboration, we can increase the absolute capability of the team. If we can work as a small team, efficiently, then if we can gradually increase that baseline capability, we can achieve better things.
“So, for instance, if I don’t change anything, if we just keep going with this size, this business model, without things like the Toyota collaboration, I think what we are doing now would be the ceiling. We won’t go any better. But that’s not good enough.
“We want to be improving. We want to be consistently top of the midfield and then looking ahead, improve even further. So in order to do that, then this Toyota technical collaboration was the key in my opinion.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Formula 1
- Eddie Jordan, 1948-2025
- Contact with team mate may have led to Bortoleto’s Australian GP crash
- FIA extends DRS zone on Shanghai’s longest straight to make passing easier
- McLaren would have been “stupid” not to use hold position order – Norris
- Hamilton dismisses ‘negativity’ over his radio calls. ‘Other drivers are almost abusive’
Mal Ross (@malross)
10th January 2025, 8:01
I really hope Komatsu-san does indeed continue to improve Haas. After years of assuming that the team was restricted by Gene Haas’s funding, and of not knowing how negative Steiner’s influence was, it was a really pleasant surprise to see them do well in 2024. The only sour note for me was the intentional misuse of Magnussen in races like Miami; that was poor judgement and wholly unnecessary. But on the whole, I’d love to see the team back to fulfilling the potential hinted at in their early years.
MichaelN
10th January 2025, 8:10
Absolutely. It seems Komatsu was right when he noted, prior to the season, that Haas had development potential that tended to get stuck in the bad way the team was run. It’ll be interesting how they do with a project that is wholly his.
SteveP
10th January 2025, 13:05
The head of technical was promoted/moved to TP – i.e. not technical.
The team’s technical progress improved.
Is it just me reading that as the previous head of technical being a problem?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
10th January 2025, 19:01
Not necessarily. If the previous head of technical was being limited by the boss’s actions, then the boss was the limiting factor.
If the boss was being limited by the previous head of technical, then the previous head of technical was the limiting factor… by not being in the optimal position. Staff assignment is generally the team principal’s job, with assistance from Human Resources (which is a control factor here because as far as we know that did not change).
Laz
10th January 2025, 10:50
The only time the team asked KMag to do anything was Jeddah, when he had already picked up a 10 second penalty. Miami KMag did by himself, there was no team order there.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
10th January 2025, 8:09
How does a Toyota collaboration work with regards to the cost cap?
SteveP
10th January 2025, 13:09
Toyota are allowed by Haas to look at the parts they have and go away and spend millions developing similar parts that work very well on cars in other formulas, Haas ask Toyota to design a part for them that is similar to the parts used in other formulas and Haas pay for, minimal, additional design work…
anon
10th January 2025, 21:01
SteveP, the FIA’s financial cap regulations place the onus onto Haas to demonstrate that it would be paying Toyota at a rate that is representative of the market value of those services, in part because the FIA did consider the possibility of teams outsourcing costs to third parties by those sorts of methods.
Euro Brun, in many ways, it’s not really all that different to how the teams already use third party suppliers or partners under the cost cap regulations. In the case of Haas specifically, it’s in some ways similar to the way that they currently sub-contract part of the design and construction work out to Dallara for their cars.
One example Komatsu has already talked about is simulator runs – Haas currently rents Ferrari’s simulator, but they only have limited access to it (especially during the season, when Ferrari prioritise their own simulation runs). Komatsu’s longer term plan is to commission Toyota to construct a simulator for them, which would allow them to carry out simulator runs that are currently not possible during the season, whilst potentially using Toyota’s existing knowledge to help set up and calibrate the simulator more efficiently than if they commissioned an independent third party developer.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
10th January 2025, 19:02
Toyota have to be paid a commercial rate for their assistance. There’s leeway in how that is defined.
SteveP
11th January 2025, 12:53
I think we share a similar level of cynicism. :)
Frank
10th January 2025, 15:57
As someone who started watching Drive to Survive only recently, the thing that strikes me the most is the complete haplessness of some team principals.
I am sure most work happens off camera but I was befuddled to see that some principals interpret leadership as boasting to be the one that calls the shots and just telling people to make the car faster or to work hard.
“Something has to be done,” I hear them claim wisely while I hear them think “and I hope someone somewhere in my teams knows what.”
I do not expect them to be aero specialists but surely a principal must try to hire the right people, make sure they have the tools to get their work done and define workable structures, processes and procedures
If they cant do any of that then maybe they could be charismatic and inspiring but alas… I have not yet heard a single team.speech that could not have been written by ChatGPT.
Someone like Vowles gives the impression that they know what they are doing but Haas, Alpine… Baffling.
F180 (@f180)
10th January 2025, 16:34
I believe it is a cultural issue in British teams. The way British teams work is a peerless bureaucracy that gives great results if the head is visionary with a deep knowledge of the business side. If not, every good idea and initiative dies in endless meetings called by entitled managers working in silos
anon
10th January 2025, 16:46
@f180 but the example that Frank cited was Haas, where the headquarters are in the USA and the design office is in Italy – so it’s a bit weird claiming that “it is a cultural issue in British teams” when talking about Haas, where that does not apply.
Similarly, the other example that Frank cited was Alpine, and whilst the chassis division is in the UK at Enstone, the senior management is based in France at Renault’s facilities in Viry-Châtillon and is largely French.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
10th January 2025, 19:04
While Haas’ HQ is in the USA and the design office is in Italy, its race team is based in the UK. It is also possible that the interplay between 3 different cultures might not have been properly managed.
Maisch (@maisch)
11th January 2025, 14:07
In the beyond the grid podcast he seemed like a very nice and knowledgeable guy, I liked his way of thinking. Im glad it worked out for him and that they improved. Management by fear and screaming apparently was not the best way of maximising the workforce potential.