Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu is looking forward to his home race in Japan, where he is now for the first time as team boss, but does not hope that Haas can only score points if something happens at the top. According to the Japanese, Haas must take matters into its own hands and be wary of Williams and Alpine, who will soon also have resolved their problems.
Haas managed to score points three times in a row, and that is already a pretty good start compared to the 2023 season, when things only seemed to go downhill for the American racing team. Haas currently sit seventh in the Constructors’ Championship with four points, and are just two points behind Visa Cash App RB. Williams, Sauber and Alpine are the only three teams that have not yet scored any points. “We cannot sit back and wait for something to happen at the top,” Komatsu concluded in conversation with Auto, Motor und Sport.
‘We must take matters into our own hands and determine our own destiny. We have now scored points three times, but we cannot be satisfied with that. Sooner or later, Williams will solve her problems. Alpine is also not far away. I am sure they will continue to improve,” the team boss continues. Alpine is currently last in the championship, and the situation at the French racing team appears to be very complex. However, the Japanese is convinced that Alpine will take another step, and that Haas must also take a step to stay ahead of the competition.
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‘That will be a special experience’
Komatsu does not want to answer the question of whether the problems with tire wear are really behind Haas until after the race in Suzuka. The challenge of the very fast Japanese circuit, also in terms of layout and asphalt, is very different from what we have experienced so far in the first three races. “I’m afraid we’re going to have a hard time,” Komatsu muses. ‘Especially if you look at our performance in the fast corners. You also saw that in Bahrain and in Jeddah, even in Melbourne in turns nine and ten, we were just not good there,” says the Haas team boss.
For the new head of Haas himself, on the other hand, the trip to the old homeland will certainly be an important one. The Japanese fans have always received the engineer enthusiastically in recent years, when he was still in the background and Guenther Steiner was at the helm. It is therefore not surprising that Komatsu is looking forward to returning to Japan. “I left Japan in 1994, thirty years ago,” Komatsu explains. ‘I never thought I would return as team boss. That will be a very special experience.’
