Despite a restrictive budget, Haas F1 has shown notable progress in 2024 under new leadership.
Rival Teams’ Underperformance Makes Haas’s 2024 F1 Car, the VF-24, Appear Better Than It Is, Admits Team Principal Ayao Komatsu
The team’s dismal 2023 season resulted in the ousting of long-time team director Gunther Steiner, with Japanese engineer Komatsu stepping up to the top job.
One of Komatsu’s initial tasks was to caution the F1 world that Haas would almost certainly remain at the back this season. However, the reality proved quite different!
“I would never lie!” he states today.
“We had to halt work on the 2024 car for two months last year due to the Austin upgrade. I knew how much it would set us back. We are also by far the smallest team on the grid. If you think logically, the only possible outcome is tenth place.”
“What happened is clear. The others simply made mistakes.”
“To be honest, the car we started the season with was nothing special. So, we had to assume the others would do a better job with three times more staff.”
“Then Sauber had issues with pit stops, Williams with the chassis, Alpine with development and weight. We couldn’t have anticipated that.”
“From our side, we understood our car, working tremendously on race pace during the winter tests. This unlocked potential.”
However, rumours have circulated that, alongside Steiner’s dismissal, team owner Gene Haas has privately admitted he would have to inject more money into his F1 team. That, at least, did not happen for 2024.
“No additional spending was required,” insists Komatsu. “All the parts we produced were within our planned budget.”
“Gene has no problem investing in the team if we perform well in the end. We obviously had to earn his trust and prove that we could improve with the resources we had. But our budget was exactly the same last year.”
“It’s simply a matter of how to use this money and how to get people working towards a common goal.”
Komatsu reveals there is even money left in the budget for further car developments during the 2024 season.
“Much of the current car can be carried over to next year.”
“That’s why we don’t want to completely stop development now. But we also have to keep an eye on 2026. We are the smallest team and so cannot work on as many things in parallel as others.”
Regarding the next stage of development for the ten-year-old Haas team, Komatsu was asked if moving away from outsourcing—such as with Dallara and Ferrari—is on the short-term agenda.
“Before you can run, you must learn to walk,” replies the 48-year-old Japanese. “Before we talk about producing suspensions and gearboxes, we need to first address other issues.”
“With our cooperation with Ferrari, I don’t have to worry about some things for now. We should not be working on our strengths, but rather eliminating our weaknesses first.”
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Despite Budget Cap, Haas F1 Makes Significant Strides Despite Budget Cap, Haas F1 Makes Significant Strides
