There was a slight discrepancy between the look and the phrases. “I’m very, very completely happy,” Ayao Komatsu assured the media on the night after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Although he appeared somewhat drained and considerably disenchanted as an alternative, as he leaned again in his chair along with his arms crossed over his chest.
Led by Komatsu, the staff overachieved in 2024. After ending tenth the 12 months earlier than, even the purpose Gene Haas had set for the staff to complete eighth appeared unrealistic to many, together with Komatsu himself. However from his “we anticipate to be final” remark initially of the 12 months in Bahrain, Haas made all of it the best way to a slim loss to Alpine within the battle for sixth on the finish.
Even at seventh, Haas can boast of being the staff with the largest year-on-year enchancment in championship place, alongside McLaren. But letting Alpine snatch sixth place on the finish was nonetheless a little bit of a bitter tablet to swallow.
“I feel it’s totally, excellent we’re disenchanted to not get P6,” Komatsu stated when the inevitable query adopted. “At first of the season, our official goal was P8. Once more, stating the plain, to be P8 you could beat two groups. You already know, I actually was considering [at the start of the year], who can we beat? What two groups are we going to beat, coming from the catastrophe of final 12 months?
“However then, I feel we simply confirmed this 12 months, regardless that we’re the smallest staff by far, if we work as a staff collectively, we are able to do that, which is one thing to be actually happy with, for everyone within the staff.
“You have to have a look at it in a way that if someone informed us that we’ll end P7 this 12 months, we would have all signed it off initially of the 12 months. However after all, the bar has raised.”
It isn’t Haas’ finest constructors’ place on paper both. In 2018, it climbed as excessive as P5 within the total standings, however that was additionally helped by Power India going into administration mid-season and its successor Racing Level not with the ability to inherit the factors all through the method. Haas’ actual place that 12 months was one down. Seventh place in 2024, nonetheless, appears to be like extra spectacular – not solely as a result of the state of F1 as a complete is now higher and fewer groups battle, but in addition due to the best way that P7 was achieved.
Haas finally misplaced out to Alpine within the battle for sixth, however impressively continued to attain factors late within the 12 months when its kind often dips
Picture by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Pictures
For the primary time in its historical past, Haas has managed not solely to remain aggressive all year long, however to outpace its rivals in improvement – which is all of the extra spectacular given the best way the staff is ready up. Delivering upgrades remains to be an even bigger problem for Haas than for many different groups: because the staff depends totally on suppliers to supply components, the journey from the design workplace to the monitor for these components is longer – and costlier, too.
However it was within the ultimate sequence of races that Haas regarded the strongest all 12 months. Probably the most outstanding stat about Haas’ season is that the staff scored factors in eight of the final 9 rounds of the championship, which is kind of an accomplishment for a staff that has by no means earlier than scored most of its factors within the second half of the 12 months.
“In case you have a look at the variety of factors we scored in every quarter of the season: final quarter we scored probably the most factors,” Komatsu doubled down. “Then the truth that we are able to put upgrades on the automotive, could make the automotive go sooner…
It will be mistaken to recommend that the staff’s season would have been drastically completely different had Steiner’s contract been renewed. However it was below Komatsu’s watch that the automotive acquired faster and faster with each single improve
“On this Abu Dhabi qualifying, to have that hole to pole that was three-tenths, no? That was unbelievable. So it is actually good that we proved that we are able to enhance the automotive, develop the automotive within the appropriate method if we work collectively as a staff, and talk.”
It is in all probability this – the tempo of improvement that Haas was in a position to keep in 2024 – that Komatsu can actually depend amongst his achievements. The truth that the VF-24 was free of the tyre administration flaws of its predecessor was undoubtedly one of many cornerstones of Haas’ improved efficiency final 12 months.
Nevertheless, this automotive was nonetheless developed below the supervision of Simone Resta and with Steiner as staff principal. And it might be mistaken to recommend that the staff’s season would have been drastically completely different had Steiner’s contract been renewed. However it was below Komatsu’s watch that the automotive acquired faster and faster with each single improve.
Maybe the Japanese supervisor, along with his engineering background, was merely higher outfitted to grasp and deal with the primary shortcomings in Haas’ comparatively sophisticated construction, with a number of bases in Italy and the UK. Improved communication between these websites – cited by Haas drivers and new technical director Andrea De Zordo as considered one of Komatsu’s important achievements – does not sound significantly thrilling, but it surely in all probability does make a noticeable distinction.
Preliminary improvement of the 2024 automotive was overseen on Steiner’s watch, however Komatsu’s appointment helped the staff to proceed progressing in the course of the 12 months
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Pictures
In spite of everything, there weren’t too many different modifications. After parting methods with Steiner and Resta, Haas did not actually make any high-profile hires. The folks stayed the identical, so it will need to have been one thing about the best way they labored collectively that Komatsu was in a position to unlock.
“Truthfully, there isn’t any magic,” he stated when requested about what modifications he has dropped at the staff. “I am sorry for [telling] a boring story, but it surely’s nothing thrilling. It is [about] doing the fundamentals very, very, very properly, and work as a staff. [And] that is what can occur.”
A very powerful victory for Komatsu was the restoration of belief between Gene Haas and his personal staff, which had clearly been broken by the top of 2023. “Gene has the cash,” was a phrase Komatsu repeated a number of occasions throughout his media classes, and it was as much as him to show to his boss that the investments have been paying off.
By negotiating higher offers with suppliers and proving that each improve – which in F1 all the time entails a seven-figure outlay – does what it is purported to, he acquired Gene to open his chequebook repeatedly all year long. This renewed belief, mixed with a seventh place within the constructors’ championship, has introduced Haas a lot nearer to reaching the price range cap in 2025. One thing that has additionally by no means occurred earlier than.
It is already been confirmed that the staff may also be getting a brand new motorhome subsequent 12 months to interchange the one which’s been in use since 2016. That does not sound significantly thrilling both, but it surely is not a small funding – definitely worth the worth of a giant efficiency improve. And it is little issues like this that assist groups develop and develop since working situations could be a deciding issue for potential recruits.
Haas, with its comparatively modest base at Banbury, is competing with the likes of Aston Martin and its swanky new manufacturing facility at Silverstone. For a staff that should develop, addressing these areas is crucial. Final 12 months Haas went from 230 to round 250 workers – and Komatsu is adamant that the method should proceed.
“We try to develop,” he defined. “Discovering good folks just isn’t straightforward. However there isn’t any doubt that we’ve got to develop. We [are] under the important mass, when you like.
Haas stays smaller than rival squads regardless of efforts to develop
Picture by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Pictures
“We’re nearly saturated on a regular basis – when one thing occurs, we’re fully overflowing. So it isn’t sustainable. I need to make this staff sustainable. In the meanwhile I really feel we have very, little or no margin. So sure, we’re recruiting and when you go to our web site you may see what number of positions we’re recruiting for. Be happy to use…
“Some positions we really discover good folks. Some positions it is actually laborious. So, you recognize, issues like our personal monitor outcomes, the message we’re placing on the market that we’re a severe race staff – that helps.
“However once more, the fascinating factor is that we get folks coming in from a lot greater groups like Mercedes and Purple Bull. It will depend on what these people are in search of. We’re a a lot smaller staff, so it is laborious work. It’s important to do much more. However some issues are higher, proper?
Komatsu is nearly the anti-Steiner in some ways. However a 12 months on the helm has been sufficient for him to show that he is in all probability the perfect chief the staff wants at this second in its historical past
“In case you’re somebody who simply needs to be given ‘that is your job, it’s important to do it in addition to you may, and we’re a race-winning staff’ – if that is what they need, then they’re going to go for the massive staff. But when they need to have, I do not know, an even bigger overview, to be extra multi-tasking… It will depend on the character. So once more, we’ve got to draw the correct character that matches into the organisation.”
It is laborious to argue that the staff would not be the place it’s at present with out Steiner. It was his enterprise sense and administration abilities that allowed Haas not solely to enter F1, however to outlive the COVID years – a process that Komatsu, along with his very completely different ability set, might not have been in a position to accomplish. It was Steiner who pulled off the offers with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin to maintain the staff on the grid in 2021, and it is also him who introduced MoneyGram on board in a while.
Komatsu is nearly the anti-Steiner in some ways. He in all probability will not get as a lot display screen time in season seven of Drive to Survive, both. However a 12 months on the helm has been sufficient for him to show that he is in all probability the perfect chief the staff wants at this second in its historical past.
He might have to proceed to develop in some areas, however whereas he in all probability would not have been in a position to safe a companion like MoneyGram, he actually deserves credit score for forging a partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing – which, together with monetary advantages, has the potential to handle a few of Haas’ inherent structural weaknesses. Even when this course of will certainly require much more time.
Komatsu is life like to recognise that Toyota partnership will take time to reap fruit
Picture by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Pictures
“In the meanwhile, we’re within the very early levels of truly establishing the undertaking,” Komatsu stated in Abu Dhabi about Toyota. “So it’s really a dip as a result of we haven’t elevated our variety of folks but, however we’ve got to arrange the undertaking, proper? So individuals are working extra.
“It’s nowhere close to the stage the place we are able to really feel any profit. In actual fact, we’re much more stretched at this minute. That’s a dip stage, which is regular. So we simply have to get out of that dip stage and onto the stage the place we are able to stabilise it, however that’s going to take a number of months. To really feel the impact on the monitor, it’s going to take at the least a 12 months.”
All this does not imply that 2025 might be successful. Haas actually benefited from its rivals’ struggles final 12 months, whether or not it was Williams’ battle with Excel spreadsheets or Sauber’s administration woes. Even repeating P7 might be a giant problem.
Komatsu may also be counting on a completely new driver line-up – considered one of his personal selecting this time. Final 12 months’s success would not have been potential with out Nico Hulkenberg, who appears to be having fun with his “third youth”. If not for a few of the German’s standout performances, Haas may simply have completed eighth.
It was Steiner, once more, who introduced the Hulk into the staff after a three-year break from F1. However it’s Komatsu who acquired the perfect out of him final 12 months, as he has tried to do with each different member of nonetheless by far the smallest staff on the F1 grid.
“Truthfully, there’s nothing higher than seeing these folks completely happy,” he stated of his private spotlight. “I am simply disenchanted as a result of the automotive [was] so fast… I simply really feel like I let down our aero guys, the designers, the fellows who labored on manufacturing and all the things to get this automotive on the monitor – I simply felt this automotive deserved P6 and I could not ship.
“I really feel like I let these folks down. That is the half that is disappointing. However on the identical time, you have a look at these guys, they’re completely happy. In fact they’re disenchanted, however they’re considering, properly, we have nonetheless had an incredible season, which is true. So yeah, it’s kind of blended [feeling], however I feel total we must be happy with ourselves.”
And what about Gene?
“Effectively, Gene… proper after the race he despatched me a message. I am not bullshitting you, right away he stated, ‘Congratulations on a really profitable 12 months for the staff.’ Simply that. So I referred to as him to thank him. He is the primary individual to be disenchanted that he did not get P6, however after I referred to as him, the very first thing he stated was – no ‘disappointment’, nothing – simply ‘congratulations’. ‘Actually, wonderful job’. ‘So significantly better than final 12 months’. ‘We acquired P7, actually completely happy’. And that is good.”
With an all-new line-up of Bearman and Ocon, can Haas construct on its spectacular 2024?
Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Pictures
On this article
Oleg Karpov
System 1
Haas F1 Staff
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