Haas 'blame' culture revealed with staff unable to 'flourish'

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu believes providing an environment for staff to "flourish" has been the foundation for the American team's improvement this season.

The 48-year-old took over from Guenther Steiner at the helm of the Banbury-based squad at the beginning of the season.

In an exclusive interview with RacingNews365, Komatsu highlighted a "blame" culture within the team before his promotion to his current role.

The Japanese engineer appears to have had a profound effect on his colleagues, and the team's performance on track, in the months since taking over.

After finishing bottom of the constructors' standings last year with 16 points, Haas has already smashed its 2023 tally this term. With 27 points in the opening 14 rounds, the team is on course to finish seventh in the championship.

The catalyst for the significant improvement has been its ability to successfully develop the car, something that provoked outgoing driver Kevin Magnussen to joke that "it's the first time in Haas' history that we brought upgrades to the car that made it faster".

It is a sentiment his boss agrees with, however, with Komatsu going into further detail on what factors have allowed for the team's change in fortunes.

Asked if he agreed with Magnussen's assessment of the Haas upgrades comment, he replied: "100 per cent, 100 percent.

"I'm so happy for everybody involved because the guys trying to develop the car over the past two years, they're the same people. They just weren't given the proper environment for them to work and flourish.

"And then they are the ones who got the blame for it. Blame is wrong anyway, but for internally [and] externally to be told, 'Haas cannot upgrade the car. They don't know what they're doing', imagine being those people. Imagine the frustration."

Along with its inability to successfully add updates onto the car during the season in years past, Haas struggled to manage tyre wear in race trim. 

It is something that mitigated the performance of the 2023 car which was undoubtedly quick over one lap.

Rectifying this deficiency became a focal point during pre-season testing, and at the hands of Nico Hulkenberg in particular, the 2024 iteration has gone from strength to strength since Haas started delivering upgrades at the Chinese Grand Prix in April.

The high point was consecutive sixth-place finishes for the German driver at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone, leaving Haas on the tail of RB in the fight for sixth in the constructors' standings.

To Komatsu, the talent and ingredients were always there. It was merely a case of providing the team with the correct environment and culture to succeed, something he appears to have achieved.

"Those people who stuck with us, I said it straight away in January [when he took over as team principal], 'I believe people [here] are good, and my job is to give you that environment [and] listen to you'.

"'Tell me what you need, I'll try to provide you with that environment. I'm not going to tell you how to develop the car, because I don't know - you guys are the experts'," he explained.

"And then they proved it. I'm just so happy they've now got the plaudits they deserve."