In the round-up: Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu says he had to overcome an entrenched view they were wasting their time by trying to introduce car upgrades during the season after taking charge earlier this year.
In brief
Haas lacked faith in upgrades – Komatsu
Komatsu, who replaced Guenther Steiner as Haas team principal at the beginning of the year, said the team lacked faith in its ability to improve their car by upgrading it during the season.
“One of the main issues we had in previous years was that Haas was not able to develop the car in-season,” he told The Fast and the Curious. “We weren’t able to put upgrades on the car that works.
“And then there were certain people saying previously that, well, an upgrade is a waste of time, it never works, we shouldn’t do it. But to me it’s the opposite. When the upgrade doesn’t work, you’ve got to really find out why your upgrade doesn’t work. It’s got to work.”
Teams can’t expect to progress in F1 if they don’t upgrade their cars during the year, said Komatsu. “To be competitive in Formula 1 you have to be able to develop the car in-season, there’s no doubt. And then if it wasn’t working, you’ve got to get to the bottom of why it didn’t work.”
He said the team has been able to address the problem by restructuring its technical division. “The two drivers are the ones telling you what the issues of the car is. So really you’ve got to understand that, then you’ve got to communicate that well to the guys back home.
“In our case, the guys in Italy, who’s basically designing the car, designers and aerodynamicists. So that closed loop communication working together was the key. So that required a change of structures and moving certain people who I believed weren’t in the right roles and then put the right people in the right place, having a structure that promotes that closed loop communication.”
EU not looking into Andretti case
While the American Department of Justice continues its investigation into why the US-owned Formula 1 series refused to allow the American Andretti team to enter, the European Union says it “cannot assess whether such barriers to entry are the result of anti-competitive conduct in breach of Article 101 and/or Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.”
“As such, the Commission is currently not considering any measures, nor is it planning to investigate the impact of the alleged barriers on innovation, jobs…
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