Ayao Komatsu, the head of the Haas F1 team, emphasized that the race pace of their Formula 1 competitors is not particularly impressive. He believes that in order to surpass the competition, the team must execute their race weekends more effectively. Despite finishing last in the Constructors’ Championship last season, Haas managed to secure points in three of the first five races this season. However, they have failed to increase their score in the last three rounds, while RB gained 17 points during that period, putting them 17 points ahead in sixth place.
During the race in Imola, Haas had the opportunity to achieve a positive result when Nico Hulkenberg overtook Yuki Tsunoda early on. However, a pit stop strategy allowed the RB driver to regain his position. Haas regrets not pitting Kevin Magnussen earlier to take advantage of his newer tires. Despite RB’s recent improvements with upgrades, Komatsu, who took over as team principal in January, is confident that Haas is still in the fight.
Komatsu stated: “We are competing with them, as we saw in Imola. They were definitely faster in qualifying, but their race pace was not exceptional. However, we need to improve our race execution and strive for perfection.” He also mentioned that there were certain things that could have been done differently with Nico after the race, but it was not his fault. It was up to the team to support him. Komatsu believes that if they had made the right pit stop at the right time with Kevin, they could have competed with Tsunoda for points.
Despite being the smallest team in terms of personnel, Komatsu denies that this puts Haas at a significant disadvantage in operating an F1 team. He acknowledges that having a few more people would be helpful, but ultimately decisions are made by one person, so having 20 people would only lead to chaos. He attributes Haas’ turnaround compared to last season to improved communication and dialogue between departments and factories.
“The communication between our various departments and factories has improved greatly. There is much more dialogue and our procedures have also improved,” said the Japanese engineer.
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