Komatsu felt sick after Australian GP “bomb”, praises Haas’ F1 turnaround

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu was effusive in his praise of his Formula 1 team for responding to the sudden emergence of a “bomb”: its shattering weakness in high-speed conditions at this year’s Australian Grand Prix. 

The American squad had largely kept its powder dry during pre-season testing as it followed a similar run plan to the one it had operated with a year prior, which prioritised long-run pace. This was credited with breakthroughs in tyre management, hence the team’s keenness to run to a similar outline.

Komatsu said that this had been “smooth”, apart from a broken engine cover loosening itself from the VF-25 on the final day, but the team was shocked by its sudden lack of performance in the Australia season opener – an eventuality that left the Japanese engineer feeling “sick”.

The car’s weakness was traced to Turns 9 and 10, where it bottomed out in the high-speed and appeared to lose a colossal chunk of downforce, which meant the drivers had to take the corners slower.

Haas quickly enacted an update to its floor for the Suzuka round to address that issue, and then later followed up with another floor update at Imola. 

“It’s been a rollercoaster of a season,” Komatsu said, when asked to reflect on the opening half of the year. “Pre-season testing was pretty smooth.  

“Then we had that bomb in Melbourne. That was seriously a shock. And then I just never forget that feeling. Honestly, literally, I felt sick. Because you’re not just last – you are last by like six tenths. 

“Then you got pretty big fundamental issue, right? But then I’m so proud of everyone in the team, how we reacted from the situation. Honestly, we didn’t sleep much in Melbourne. Then understanding where the issues are, what can we do, because we cannot wait until, like, [the] next planned upgrade because it’s a serious issue. 

“And we cannot be completely at the mercy of the tracks we go to. We had Suzuka coming, which is a high-speed track, so we had to react.  

“And I’m so proud how we reacted for Suzuka, and then made a step forward. And then the fact that we did an upgrade in Imola, which was definitely affected by what we had in Melbourne, was still a step forward.” 

Komatsu says that the Silverstone update means the team is now largely on top of the issue, and this indicates that the team is continuing to deliver on its updates throughout the year – as Haas had previously gained a reputation for struggling to find meaningful performance gains with its upgrade cycle.  

He added that the growth of the squad in the past year has stopped its high-speed issue from being “catastrophic”, and praised the team’s spirit and togetherness in enacting a fix. 

“But then what we had in Silverstone, after Imola, we knew we are on top of that Melbourne issue, so then we could do a normal upgrade for Silverstone, which was pretty good, I would say.  

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

“I think especially considering who we are, I think we proved again, like last year, I think our development was excellent. And then with the VF-25, now with the Silverstone upgrade, we’ve got a car we can fight in the top 10 with if we execute every single time.  

“We have 35 points, it’s P9, but it’s eight points to a P6. It’s all very tight. So again, I think every weekend, we’ve got to take it one step at a time, just do the best job possible.

“I think I said this bit many, many races ago: if that had happened 12 months earlier, I think that would have been catastrophic.

“But at least throughout the last year, we built a foundation of trust, supporting each other, working together, so we could deal with that situation. I couldn’t be happier with the reaction I got.”