Haas boss reveals extent of past dysfunction at team

Ayao Komatsu has revealed the scale of what he labelled as "excuses" for poor performances from the Haas F1 team. 

Komatsu replaced Guenther Steiner ahead of the 2024 season, with owner Gene Haas growing frustrated at a lack of results delivered under Steiner's stewardship. 

In the four seasons between 2020-2023, Haas finished last in the constructors' twice and endured tricky relationships with drivers such as Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, who was ultimately replaced by fellow German Nico Hulkenberg for '23 to partner Kevin Magnussen. 

Haas struggled with tyre wear throughout the 2023 season, and was unable to get on top of the issue, with a big upgrade package at the United States GP also failing to deliver the expected boost. 

Under Steiner, Komatsu was trackside engineering director, and whilst he felt there were some mitigating circumstances at times, the Japanese felt too many excuses had been made.

"The reason [Gene] got frustrated over the years, for some there is an excuse like COVID [in 2020], but last year, there was no excuse," Komatsu told RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview.

"There was always some excuse like: 'okay, this year we are not developing because we are just preparing for next year.

"For 2023, there is no excuse and then what happened in 2023 is because we didn't fundamentally address the issues of 2019. 

"That is people being in denial, pointing the finger at certain things and we were never working properly as a team, that was totally clear." 

Gene Haas's commitment

Haas finished a strong fifth in the 2018 championship, with Magnussen ninth in the drivers', having challenged Renault for fourth before the French team pulled away to clinch the position.

However, it was in 2019 when Haas's problems began with a slide down the order to ninth and just 28 points, with the saga of a rogue sponsor being a major talking point. 

Given this and the struggles of 2020-2021, there has been talk of Gene Haas looking to sell the team, with the Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR Cup team set to close at the end of the season. 

However, Komatsu is firm that the commitment of the owner is "long-term."

"All these experiences are from 2016 in this team, and then knowing what kind of potential I see, I 100% believe that if we can give these people the environment that works, we can do it," he said.

"Gene's commitment is completely long-term, he is 100% focused on performance."