F1 | Komatsu and the arduous task of reviving the fortunes of Haas

F1 Haas Komatsu – While waiting to discover the new car for the 2024 Formula 1 season (presentation of the livery set for next February 2), Alexey Popov expressed more than a few doubts about the appointment of Ayao Komatsu as the new Haas Team Principal, specifying how the difficulties economic aspects of the team, combined with the technical ones highlighted several times over the last two years, will significantly complicate the life of the Japanese engineer. Komatsu, we remember, took over the position at the beginning of January to replace Guenther Steiner, who was dismissed by Gene Haas due to the poor results achieved in the last two seasons.

Komatsu and the Haas challenge according to Popov

“Komatsu has always been an engineer, both at Lotus and Haas, and now he will have the task of deciding. This is nothing new for Formula 1, given that Mattia Binotto was also an engineer at Ferrari. Same thing for Andrea Stella at McLaren and for James Vowles at Mercedes, who later became TP of Williams. Let's say that there is this tendency to entrust the helms of the stables to technicians. Either way, Komatsu will face a difficult situation. The team's budget is not large, on the contrary, and there are many technical problems. Honestly, with the current investments, I don't know if Haas will be able to move away from the last place in the field."

Ayao Komatsu's profile

Born in Tokyo in 1976, he made his Formula 1 debut way back in 2006 with Renault. He first worked as race engineer for Nelson Piquet Junior and later for Romain Grosjean. In 2011, thanks to Mark Slade's farewell to the team, he passed to the management of Vitaly Petrov, only to return to assist Grosjean in his second adventure with the French team, which in the meantime had become Lotus. In 2015 he became chief engineer before moving to Haas together with Grosjean, where he carried out a good "hierarchy" climb up to the role of Director of Track Engineers.