Komatsu: We will try to perform better than a year ago

Ayo Komatsu, head of Haas F1, spoke about the tasks facing the team at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and also emphasized that the information obtained from the tests will be very useful in solving them.

Ayo Komatsu: “During pre-season testing, our main focus was on finding a more efficient racing approach and learning to manage tire degradation, which was our biggest weakness last year. These were our main goals and we were completely focused on achieving them.

On the first day of testing we managed to make good progress, both in terms of working with the car’s settings and in terms of the way the racers drive it. On the second day we continued to analyze the behavior of the rubber, but also collected information for our aerodynamicists, which will be useful to them in the process of further modernization of the chassis.

This year it is very important to do everything right, and so far the team has succeeded. Although we did not plan to run a qualifying simulation on the third day of testing, I felt that we had already made enough progress in the work that we could test what the VF-24 is capable of in one fast lap with a minimum fuel. load. And yet, first of all, we addressed the reliability issues and ran a racing simulation.

I think overall we have accomplished our tasks: we have mapped out the behavior of the tyres, set the direction for further research for our aerodynamics department and worked on reliability.

I believe we will continue to follow the same approach, i.e. First of all we will focus on race pace and then on preparing for qualifying. We will use the information we learned during testing in practice and I think we already have a solid foundation, so next race weekend more work will have to be done on refining and perhaps finding a better compromise between qualifying and the race..

Last year in Bahrain we were able to show an 8th place in qualifying, but we understood that we would not be able to maintain this position in the race, so now we will try to improve.

In my opinion the tests went well. At the same time, we know that rubber in Bahrain experiences very heavy loads and the level of degradation is very high. In addition, the work on the track takes place under different temperature conditions, as it starts in daylight and continues until the evening, which also allows you to collect a lot of useful information.

In my opinion it is good that the season starts with a stage on this circuit, where the rear of the car is more heavily loaded, because if we remember last year’s experience, the main problem with the VF-23 was the degradation of the rear tires. And if this kind of problem happens again, then it is better now and we will try to adjust the settings when we go to other circuits.”