In the round-up: Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu says he had to overcome an entrenched view they were wasting their time by trying to introduce car upgrades during the season after taking charge earlier this year.
In brief
Haas lacked faith in upgrades – Komatsu
Komatsu, who replaced Guenther Steiner as Haas team principal at the beginning of the year, said the team lacked faith in its ability to improve their car by upgrading it during the season.
“One of the main issues we had in previous years was that Haas was not able to develop the car in-season,” he told The Fast and the Curious. “We weren’t able to put upgrades on the car that works.
“And then there were certain people saying previously that, well, an upgrade is a waste of time, it never works, we shouldn’t do it. But to me it’s the opposite. When the upgrade doesn’t work, you’ve got to really find out why your upgrade doesn’t work. It’s got to work.”
Teams can’t expect to progress in F1 if they don’t upgrade their cars during the year, said Komatsu. “To be competitive in Formula 1 you have to be able to develop the car in-season, there’s no doubt. And then if it wasn’t working, you’ve got to get to the bottom of why it didn’t work.”
He said the team has been able to address the problem by restructuring its technical division. “The two drivers are the ones telling you what the issues of the car is. So really you’ve got to understand that, then you’ve got to communicate that well to the guys back home.
“In our case, the guys in Italy, who’s basically designing the car, designers and aerodynamicists. So that closed loop communication working together was the key. So that required a change of structures and moving certain people who I believed weren’t in the right roles and then put the right people in the right place, having a structure that promotes that closed loop communication.”
EU not looking into Andretti case
While the American Department of Justice continues its investigation into why the US-owned Formula 1 series refused to allow the American Andretti team to enter, the European Union says it “cannot assess whether such barriers to entry are the result of anti-competitive conduct in breach of Article 101 and/or Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.”“As such, the Commission is currently not considering any measures, nor is it planning to investigate the impact of the alleged barriers on innovation, jobs and the competitiveness of the motor sport and automotive sector in the EU,” said executive vice-president Margarethe Vestager in a statement. “However, the Commission stands ready to review any evidence of anticompetitive conduct that interested parties may bring to its attention.”
Ferrari and Red Bull sponsors accused of ‘greenwashing’
Exxonmobil and Shell, sponsors of Red Bull and Ferrari respectively, have been accused of greenwashing by promoting a campaign to clean up plastic waste which accounts for a tiny fraction of their annual production. The two companies, along with TotalEnergies, ChevronPhillips and Dow, launched the Alliance to End Plastic Waste in 2019.
An investigation by Greenpeace found they cleaned up around 1,000 metric tonnes of plastic, a total dwarfed by the 131.8 million tonnes they created. The group abandoned its original target of 15 million tonnes last year, stating it “was just too ambitious.”
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Nasr puts Penske on top at Thermal IndyCar test (Racer)
'Former Williams F1 driver Logan Sargeant, who was making his IndyCar testing debut, ended the morning in second, led the middle session, and was third in the final outing when the best times were set.'
EU to decide on F1 owner Liberty Media's MotoGP deal by December 19th (Reuters)
'The deal also requires antitrust clearance in the UK, Brazil and Australia, and Foreign Direct Investment filings in Spain and Italy.'
Las Vegas Strip-area businesses continue to bemoan F1’s costly effects (Las Vegas Sun)
'Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, a spokesperson for several of those businesses, calls the effects from the race — now in its second year — 'intolerable for the business owners.' Four businesses have taken legal action over lost revenue against Formula One, which is contracted to host the race for 10 years.'
The Gran Turismo 7 November Update: Five new cars and Rotiform! (Gran Turismo)
The 1955 Mercedes W196 R Formula 1 car has been added in the latest update to Gran Turismo 7.
De Vries handed surprise drive with F1 team after brutal Red Bull exit (The Mirror)
'Why De Vries took part in the testing session at the weekend is not clear. It may be the case, though, that it was originally intended for Gabriel Bortoleto who recently left the McLaren stable to sign up to race in F1 for Sauber next year, and that the arrangements had already been made so they simply switched drivers at short notice.'
Apple Vision Pro F1 spatial viewer Lapz forced to pause TestFlight (Upload)
'Apple Vision Pro spatial F1 viewer app Lapz has been forced to pause its TestFlight distribution by the Formula One Group.'
McLaren F1 teen hopes to inspire other women (BBC)
'Despite her success, she still gets 'mixed views' from men in the sport and hopes her place and an upcoming Netflix series following some of her peers, will help overtake stereotypes.'
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Its @formula-1.bsky.social week in #Vegas. Us locals HATE F1, but we'll gladly relieve the rich of their monies so spend away obscenely rich people, spend away
— 🏆-Elly (@elly71.bsky.social) 19 November 2024 at 19:38
Daniel Ricciardo may have lost his #F1 drive two months ago but one casino is still running its 'Shoey Bar' promotion at the #LasVegasGP.
The agency behind it claim 3,000 were sold last year: "We democratised a cult favourite victory celebration in which a driver drinks from a racing shoe."
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet.bsky.social) 20 November 2024 at 14:35
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Comment of the day
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali’s description of the series as “sport entertainment” hit a nerve for some. Has F1 become too corporate?
It just all feels very different now, It feels too controlled, too sterile, too corporate, too artificial and the drivers don’t give off that same level of pure passion that many of those from the past did. I’m not saying that they aren’t just as passionate but they just don’t… Or maybe it’s that they aren’t allowed to show it in the same way as those from the past were.
And then you have the teams. Gone are those independent privateers who are there out of a pure love for the sport. It’s now manufacturers or other investors who are there purely for business reasons. And yes, the sport always had manufacturers who were there to sell cars, but the racing projects always tended to be run by racing people who had just as much passion for the sport as the privateer entrants did.
We’ve lost that and I think it’s been to the determinant of the sport because it again just makes it all feel very sterile and corporate.
It’s a sport that feels like it’s lost its heart and I’m not blaming Liberty for that as it’s something that started before there involvement but I do feel that with Liberty not been ‘racing people’ there are many aspects of the sport which the higher-ups don’t get which has accelerated something that was already happening. And it feels to me that rather than the racing people like Ross [Brawn], Stefano etc… that they brought in to help bringing some of that racing passion to Liberty that instead they have simply become more corporate and lost touch with the sport.
PeterG
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Polishboy808, Piyush Arya and Square Route!
M2X
21st November 2024, 0:29
Komatsu has shown how much of an influence a single person can have on an organisation.
Once you have the right person in the right position being able to exert influence, knowledge, motivation on that organisation, it can perform on a completely different level.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st November 2024, 2:11
Yes, he’s doing a good job and I like what he said about making upgrades work.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
21st November 2024, 5:52
It’s good to see Haas invest in good technically minded people. One of the best positives of the season, along with Yuki, Williams’ team boss finally pulling his thumb out, solid rookie driving.
Hopefully Komatsu-san and Toyota can really turn up the heat and bring it to Mercedes and Aston next year.
S
21st November 2024, 8:33
Toyota?
Major announcement coming soon?
grat
21st November 2024, 15:20
Mid-October, I think. Of this year.
Toyota entered into a “technical” partnership with Haas. Not a sponsorship or a works deal, just an information sharing setup apparently.
S
22nd November 2024, 8:44
‘Technical partnership’ means contractor.
Toyota have been doing it for decades already with their wind tunnel – they’ve just been accepting cash instead of demanding marketing space in return.
SPArtacus
21st November 2024, 6:05
He’s been a huge fresh breath of air, but as always, it’s more complicated than it looks. The main source of their improvement hasn’t come from within, but from without.
Haas’ pace hasn’t improved dramatically this season. What has changed, just like Ferrari, is that tire wear has went from a huge achilles heal to a major strength + the car’s performance being more even from track-to-track. Ferrari solved this problem primarily through its revised gearbox, suspension carrier and rear end, which is shared by Haas.
Similarly, AM and Mercedes share those same components and both have slid back by roughly corresponding levels with each having similar problems (same of type corners, same type of wildly swinging pace from session to session, etc. McLaren makes its own gearbox, suspension carrier and rear end suspension, which is one major reason why it doesn’t share those issues.
SPArtacus
21st November 2024, 6:08
heel*
Tristan
21st November 2024, 7:07
Add to that there is Alpine who deliberately designed an oversized underfloor, sauber being MIA and Williams who were fighting one hand behind their back. Not to take anything away from Haas of course but it’s indeed more complicated than just one person being a saviour.
Ideals (@ideals)
21st November 2024, 7:25
I mean when that one person is the boss of the entire outfit, then yes, one person makes a huge difference.
But Big Pete the truck driver is going to be pretty darn inconsequential.
Big Pete the Haas Truck Driver (@bigpetethetruckdriver)
21st November 2024, 9:30
Oi, bloomin cheek
We are all told by Gene that no cog in his wonderful machines are worth any more than any other 🤣
G (@unklegsif)
21st November 2024, 12:05
Comment of the Year this, “Pete”. Well played 😂👍😂
I can see it now, in the old Gunther days…. “****in’ hell Gene, Pete the ****in’ truck driver is getting beyond his station again”
SteveP
21st November 2024, 15:08
Quite so.
I’m wondering whether he had a long and in depth conversation with the guy that was the technical lead for the last X seasons about why the upgrades they did create, didn’t work; but the ones from the new technical lead do.
Should be some good “learnings” from that conversation.
Seppo (@helava)
21st November 2024, 3:54
Haas wouldn’t exist without Steiner, who deserves a lot of credit. But if you’ve ever managed a creative technical organization, Steiner was an absolutely gobsmackingly *terrible* leader.
Almost everything about his personality is antithetical to success. Publicly belittling his drivers, blaming others for failures, yelling at people and publicly calling them “wankers” in front of their team, blowing up at the slightest provocation… sure, this is all DTS stuff, but literally no good manager/leader would have ever even generated enough footage of that kind of behavior, so no editor would be able to piece together a character like that even through selective editing.
Komatsu is very clearly a more level headed, calm person in general, and more results-oriented. When he’s talked about the team’s difficulties, he doesn’t blame other people – he didn’t publicly call out the people in the wrong positions that needed to be changed, he just changed it, and talked about it without dragging peoples’ reputations through the mud.
This is such a massive difference when you’re one a creative technical team, because it means that you can take risks without fear of humiliation – a risk-averse mindset is the absolute worst thing you can have in a team like this, because when you can’t make any mistakes, you can’t make any progress.
I’m really excited to see Haas more on the front foot this year. I hope that it continues, and I think it will. Again – all credit to Steiner for getting the team off the ground, but often, the person who starts something in motion isn’t always the best person to lead it to success. They can often be two disparate sets of skills. Looking forward to how Komatsu does when he’s had time to shape the organization more to his mindset.
asz
21st November 2024, 10:47
Indeed, as they may have a salesperson mindset and the talent to match, but not at all interested in processes and managing people.
Roy Beedrill
21st November 2024, 5:28
This. Komatsu was a driver’s race engineer, it was exactly his job back then. The same goes for Stella and Vowles. And you can see how well their teams are doing now.
Maybe Renault should have tried to hire GP or Bono as their next team principal instead of exhuming Flavio.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
21st November 2024, 5:31
They are if you don’t know what you are doing, ala Mercedes.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
21st November 2024, 7:11
“We democatriced a shoe drink”
Where did it all go this wrong?
Tristan
21st November 2024, 7:19
The land of the capitalist democrats I guess, and now, the home of F1.
SteveP
21st November 2024, 17:51
Democrats. Ummm.
Tristan
21st November 2024, 19:16
Well, I mean democracy got them there, let’s see if they take the risk of trying to tear that down (way off topic now)
Jere (@jerejj)
21st November 2024, 7:16
I thought Bortoleto would officially remain with McLaren until the year’s end, but apparently, his official departure got fast-tracked.
However, De Vries doing a test run in the 2022 car despite not being involved with McLaren in any way is weird, given they have, for example, Pato O’Ward, who’s familiar with the manufacturer’s F1 side of things.
I can definitely see where the COTD is coming from, so I can understand & agree on certain aspects, including the part about Domenicali & Brawn, especially the former, as I liked him more as a TP, not that I’ve disliked him in his current position either.
MacLeod (@macleod)
21st November 2024, 8:11
@jerejj Indeed it’s a strange situation why Nick de Vries does the test maybe for some feedback of the car as if memory serves me right is that the begin of the bad car into a much beter one.
notagrumpyfan
21st November 2024, 7:27
There are quite a few references and articles about disgruntled businesses and locals in Las Vegas.
Maybe time to start a spin off of this site.
Jay
21st November 2024, 10:25
Maybe they’ll allow controversial comments on that site!
Patrick (@paeschli)
21st November 2024, 20:32
I don’t understand how someone can write such nonsense as
when you have Verstappen driving Norris off the track at every opportunity he gets. What’s more passionate than risking your safety and the safety of other drivers simply for the opportunity of winning a drivers title?
You can criticise Verstappen for a lot of things, but not being passionate enough? Dude likes driving cars so much he spends every waking hour he isn’t driving a real car driving virtual cars.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
21st November 2024, 23:54
That’s taking advantage of inconsistent FIA regulation enforcement, which to me comes across as pretty cynical. Cynicism may not be the antithesis of passion, but it’s not exactly a natural companion.