Guenther Steiner will not lead Haas into their ninth season as team principal following his immediate departure from the US-owned outfit.
Haas fell to last place in the constructors championship for the second time in three years during 2023. Owner Gene Haas said today it was clear their performance must improve.
Ayao Komatsu, who like Steiner has been with the team since its first season, has been promoted from director of engineering to team principal. Haas said this will put a greater focus on their engineering operation.
Following Steiner’s departure, the team will also appoint a new chief operating officer to oversee the non-competitive side of the its activities.
“Moving forward as an organisation it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances,” said Haas. “In appointing Ayao Komatsu as team principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.”
Komatsu, 47, arrived in F1 with British American Racing and worked at Renault before joining Haas. Still F1’s newest team, Haas impressed by scoring points on its debut in 2016 and went on to finish that season eighth in the standings. It achieved a best result of fifth in 2018 but slumped to ninth the following season.
Since then it has only finished as high as eighth on one occasion. That came in 2022, when the team capitalised on a major change in the technical regulations and scored a fifth place finish in the opening race. But it failed to progress from there and even with a more experienced driver line-up in 2023 ended the season last.
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“We have had some successes, but we need to be consistent in delivering results that help us reach our wider goals as an organisation,” stated team founder Gene Haas. “We need to be efficient with the resources we have but improving our design and engineering capability is key to our success as a team.
“I’m looking forward to working with Ayao and fundamentally ensuring that we maximise our potential – this truly reflects my desire to compete properly in Formula 1.”
Komatsu said he was “naturally very excited” to take on the role of team principal for the first time.
“Having been with the team since its track debut back in 2016 I’m obviously passionately invested in its success in Formula 1,” he said. “I’m looking forward to leading our program and the various competitive operations internally to ensure we…
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