Ayo Komatsu: Haas car has no race pace

In the opening six races of the season, Haas has earned eight points and is seventh in the Constructors’ Championship. On the eve of the Spanish Grand Prix, the team’s lead race engineer, Ayo Komatsu, assessed the Haas’ current form.

Q: How do you rate the team’s performance this season?
Ayo Komatsu: Considering we’re only in our second season where we don’t have to think about survival, we’re doing a good job. I think the car has good basic characteristics. In fact, the results even slightly exceed our expectations, which is positive, but we lack stability on different tracks and race pace. We are working on it, the interaction between different departments of the team has already become more efficient, which is very positive. We have potential, but it remains to add speed to the distance of the race.

Q: This season, the team is bringing new items for the first time in years. How much does it help?
Ayo Komatsu: This is positive for the team as the first major upgrades we brought to the track in Miami are just working. It is not easy to get a found solution to work on a car in a wind tunnel.

This time we didn’t see much performance improvement in the wind tunnel, but we decided to put it on the car anyway because of some details. On the track, the car’s behavior not only changed in line with expectations – the car actually drove better than we thought.

Then, following this philosophy, we brought the front wing to Monaco, which was prepared for Imola. In Monaco we have not been able to assess its effectiveness, but we will do that next weekend. In terms of team morale, the results are brilliant.

Question: Are some team pilots performing as expected?
Ayo Komatsu: Nico Hulkenberg gave the team exactly what we were looking for. Already during testing in Abu Dhabi it was clear that he has a good feel for the car, so his feedback is very precise, he is calm and rarely makes mistakes. Even when things aren’t perfect, it stays calm, provides real-time feedback and doesn’t confuse engineers so they can focus.

We get a lot of data every time he goes out on track and he knows how to comment on the behavior of the car in a way that is understandable to the engineers. Niko helps to speed up work with the settings, and Kevin also benefits from this.

In Monaco, the team was not competitive enough, but the riders showed consistent results in every session. They have different limitations, but they learn from each other and help each other. The most important thing is that they both have a clear idea of ​​where we need to improve the car.

Q: This season is a very close battle in the middle of the pack for positions in the Constructors’ Championship. How does Haas manage to remain competitive and stable?
Ayo Komatsu: The battle in the middle of the pack is very tight. We participated in qualifying and in most of the races. If we manage to get the settings right, the car is in the optimal working range and the drivers show their best side, then we can compete with Alpine.

We lack race speed, but we are working on this problem. In Miami, Kevin was upset that he only finished tenth, but no one stopped in that race. With the exception of the big teams – Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin – only Pierre Gasly preceded us. All of our departments are working better together and I believe in the second year of the revival the team is in the positions it should be.