Since leaving his position as Haas F1 boss, Guenther Steiner has turned journalist and recently claimed that his former team had deliberately lowered expectations during pre-season to give the impression that it had set them at the start of the season surpassed.
New team leader Ayo Komatsu categorically disagrees with this…
Ayo Komatsu: “According to the wind tunnel data, I knew how much we could win back, but our opponents did not stand still. We started development on this car late and then paused it for two months to prepare new items for Austin. We don’t have the most advanced development tools and a very small team trying to throw dust in someone’s eyes.
We saw the data and knew the new car wasn’t a big step forward. In the winter I had no idea that after four races we would be in seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship, but who could have expected the new Alpine car to have so little success. You can’t count on your opponents’ problems; on the contrary, you have to assume that everyone will do their job well.
I had to prepare our boys and make sure that when we were last in Bahrain, they wouldn’t get depressed. This is by no means an attempt to temper expectations, but a realistic approach to possible developments. Later, when we did some long sets of laps during winter testing, I thought that maybe we could fight with two or three other teams and challenge for seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
