Haas celebrate rival F1 driver for role in conquering major team concern

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has praised Nico Hulkenberg for helping build a foundation of trust within the team.

Hulkenberg joined Haas in 2023 after a period on the sidelines and spent two seasons with the American squad before joining Stake for the 2025 campaign.

Haas entered the current term with a fully revised line-up as it brought in Esteban Ocon to partner rookie Oliver Bearman.

The duo have scored 35 points in the opening 14 rounds, leaving it ninth place in the constructors' championship.

Ocon is known to have endured friction with team-mates in the past, however the partnership with Bearman has gone relatively smoothly.

One sticking point, however, came at the British Grand Prix when the duo collided in wet weather conditions.

Speaking to select media including RacingNews365, Komatsu highlighted the situation was quickly resolved in the post-race debrief. 

“Honestly, both of them have been great team players,” he said.

“Silverstone was a very specific circumstance where there was only one dry line, so it caused the issue.

“But none of them were intentional. We had a very good chat and it was totally fine.”

Komatsu pointed to a situation during the Belgian Grand Prix last month as an indication of the harmonious working relationship between the pair.

“Even before that point, every single time we had to issue a team order, every single time, there were zero questions,” he said. “They do it straight away.

“In Spa, before the sprint, we were next to each other. P5 and P7. I spoke to both of them before the sprint, ‘[Here is] what we are going to do’. Totally clear.

“No issue whatsoever. Then we had to split the downforce level for the main qualifying and the race, because of uncertainty with the weather.

“Sunday morning, we had a chat, because with that much difference in the downforce level, at a certain point, one car is going to be so much quicker than the other.

“So we sat down, the three of us talked. It was totally clear.

“In the race, Esteban just said I’ll let Olli pass now. We didn't even ask, that's it.”

Ocon's intra-team friction in the past came primarily from a number of on-track spats at Force India with former team-mate Sergio Perez.

In a bid to avoid any repeat of such a situation in his own team, Komatsu set out to establish a foundation of trust and respect when he rose to the team principal position at the start of 2024.

“When you guys were asking about this towards the end of last year, I said I was confident - but I wasn't saying that just to be saying it,” Komatsu outlined.

“I really believed if we built up a foundation with the trust and respect between the drivers and the team, if the foundation is there, because we're not going to do everything right away every time.

“Some team orders we're going to issue might be a mistake, but as long as we got the foundation of trust, transparency and respect, none of it will be escalated.

“If we make mistakes, we're going to talk about it after the race in a completely open manner, like we did in Silverstone.

“We sat down, we talked about it. We all said our observations and opinions. We said ‘this is what we're going to do going forward’. 

“Zero issues. So for me, that's the key, just the foundation, just the trust, transparency, respect.”

At the forefront of the fresh mindset of unquestioned trust was Hulkenberg.

The German driver scored over 70 per cent of Haas' points throughout the 2024 season. Komatsu believes the root of Hulkenberg's strong performances was the trust he had within the team, which gave Komatsu a base to build upon.

“You can ask Nico why did he perform so well last year? We really had a very, very good relationship.

“I’ve been doing this for 22 years, or something like this. Last year, the relationship we built with Nico gave me a new baseline.

“This is what we need to achieve with any driver, because then that’s a performing environment.

“Everyone is a human being. If a driver doesn't trust the team, the team doesn’t trust the driver, if you feel this decision is forced upon me, of course, it's not going to be the best.

“It’s not even a racing thing. It's just a more fundamental human quality. Respect, transparency, honesty, inclusion. All that is what we're trying to build inside this team.

“Esteban had experienced many years in F1, good and bad. Now I feel like we have got this foundation.

“Of course, it's something you’ve got to build on every single time.

“It’s not like ‘Okay, we got there. Fine, forget about it’.

“No, every situation is different. Every scenario is different. We are doing that, I think fundamental trust there.”