Haas’s turnaround a lesson in what F1 teams can achieve after escaping loops of dysfunction

It’s been 15 months since the 2023 United States Grand Prix. Yet only here has the depth of despair at Formula 1’s only (for now) American squad been revealed.

Back then, Haas was unleashing a major upgrade package – its first of that campaign. Then team boss Guenther Steiner said, “I don’t know what to expect”. Yet Haas hoped it would finally end its severe swings from qualifying star to race no-hoper. But the move to Red Bull’s downwash concept ultimately did nothing.

Steiner was gone at 2023’s end, replaced by the team’s former chief race engineer, Ayao Komatsu. A year into his team principal era, Komatsu is the one saying how bad things had been – describing a squad that knew rare late-season development efforts were for naught, as its initial car concept was so flawed.

“I was so happy that when we could make progress with the car [in 2024], they did it,” he said of his technical team on Monday.

“Those people who've [always] been told that Haas cannot upgrade a car, do you know how depressed they were in Austin 2023? None of them wanted to do the Austin upgrades. But they had to do it. That was the low point.”

Komatsu was facing the F1 press corps at Haas’s Banbury base, which it could either be enlarging or moving on from, depending on the upcoming choices facing eponymous owner Gene Haas.

The situation at Haas has become more positive since Komatsu took over

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images

His squad has often made an art of off-season intrigue. That’s whether it’s previously revealed a livery or new car earlier than most, or these days getting Komatsu to brief the media mid-January – with many a page and website needing filling at this actionless time of year.

But he also had much to announce in any case this time around.

While Haas’s main personnel change in 2024’s F1 offseason was Steiner’s abrupt exit and Komatsu’s promotion, now the latter has more of his staffing masterplan to unleash.

Having quickly realised he had to be “brutal” in ignoring other problems from Haas’s previous era, when only improving via quicker cars that would lead to the improved results and a consequently more engaged owner, only now is Komatsu making major changes to Haas’s trackside F1 team.

“I knew it was less than ideal, but I could not change too many things" Ayao Komatsu

This, he feels, is necessary to stop bleeding points through poor in-race strategy calls and weekend execution – apparently so critical to its narrow seven-point defeat to Alpine for sixth in the 2024 constructors’ championship.

The Haas technical department had done enough to secure its stability – precisely because it succeeded in that initial aim of making its 2024 car product so much better than its much-maligned predecessor. It will also be boosted by the arrival of ex-Toyota, Sauber and Marussia engineer Francesco Nenci in Komatsu’s old role of deploying the design vision of his new factory-based colleagues at each race.

But in the virtuous circle that better results mean additional funding and a team becoming a more attractive proposition in the uber-pragmatic world of F1 staffing changes – Haas had found its first major hiring spree wasn’t as straightforward as expected when it was enacted last summer – in the announced staffing overhaul new arrivals are joining several notable in-house promotions.

Komatsu was cautious of changing too much, too soon

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

Given they can build significant profiles of their own these days as the voice in the ears of our racing heroes, the race engineer advancements of previous Haas performance engineers Laura Mueller and Ronan O'Hare top the bill. 

The former will attract considerable interest as F1’s first female race engineer. But Carine Cridelich coming in as Haas’s first head of race strategy from close rival Racing Bulls is another intriguing signing.

“I knew it was less than ideal, but I could not change too many things,” Komatsu said of his initial work a year ago.

“We are such a small team with no margin, that we cannot just disintegrate. I really had to be brutal in terms of saying, 'ok, I know these things are not great, but I really need to ignore it until such a stage that we can deal with it as a team'.

“So, I said ‘we're going to [keep] the trackside [organisation] for a year, and then we revamp’.”

The sting of the late Steiner era shines through plenty of what Komatsu is discussing. It also reflects his no-nonsense nature.

His predecessor’s decision to delay the development of the final car built on his watch at Haas is understood to have fed into the Austin upgrade that failed so miserably.

Although it’s notable that at the time Steiner was also insisting “sometimes you just have to do something instead of sitting on the fence all the time and always finding a good reason why not to do something”.

Haas finished bottom of the 2023 standings having failed to score a point after Austin

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Conflict with the engineers is the subtext here, to which Komatsu has alluded further. But team insiders insist the shoots that grew into at least some of the transformation still unfurling now were sown by Steiner. 

Haas is very different these days. Komastu claims that “this year is the first time as a company that Gene doesn’t have to put his money in – it’s great” and that Haas is now finally operating at F1’s budget cap level. Given its staff headcount remains just 330, with the top squads operating with around 1,000 employees, this suggests its model of outsourcing so much of its development to Ferrari is its main outgoing.

But, in another first, Haas isn’t completely taking all its car design cues from the Scuderia for its 2025 challenger. It will not use the pull-rod front suspension expected to appear on Ferrari’s new machine.

Komatsu’s thinking is that it’s better not to have to work out the complexities of a new aero platform from a fresh start. That’s in an area of the car so critical to finessing the critical ride height choices with the current cars.

This current mini era marks the first since 2018 where Haas hasn’t appeared in a spiral of dysfunction

This is with Haas having finally arrived at such good form now Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg should’ve started the 2024 Abu Dhabi season finale in fourth and the major rules reset coming anyway next year.

Komatsu’s aim in all this is “to be P6” in 2025 – having come so close to leaping up from last in 2023 to this spot last year. That’s with Haas’s eventual seventh place finish still a fine return.

“We never achieved that kind of consistent result year on year,” he added, with Haas’s only stable positions of eighth twice in 2016 and 2017, and ninth twice in 2019 and 2020, coming either side of 2018’s high-watermark fifth.

“So even fighting for P6-P7 this year, if we achieve that one fighting for the same position, that would be a huge achievement, I think.”

Haas is aiming for another year of stability before the 2026 rule change

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

This current mini era marks the first since 2018 that Haas hasn’t appeared in a spiral of dysfunction.

It’s not so long ago that Gene Haas was contemplating ending the project and little wonder Komatsu didn’t want to think back to the Nikita Mazepin/Mick Schumacher spat-filled 2021 season when asked to consider how the Esteban Ocon/Oliver Bearman battle might play out if such savage in-fighting repeats in Haas’s all-new 2025 line-up.

Such seemingly never-ending sagas are present across sport. Think Manchester United’s dive down the Premier League table over the last decade or how the Dallas Cowboys haven’t won anything of note in the NFL for decades, for things Stateside. Management flux or error overhangs it all.

With so few winners in most sports – and F1 an example of more limited success availability even on the gargantuan modern calendar – such handling errors are turbocharged in our instant-gratification age. The risk of repeated failure often means teams aren’t given sufficient time to bed-in and flourish.

And things could still fall apart for Komatsu’s regime at Haas.

Positive race results are just never guaranteed and it’s clear even the new personnel changes contained at least some pain – with popular team manager Peter Crolla exiting at 2024’s end. He has effectively been replaced by Mark Lowe, who rejoins his old team as Haas’s first sporting director.

Elsewhere, this is already a season where Aston Martin has gone through another swathe of job changes for its trackside team, yet seemingly can’t get rid of the biggest thing holding it back overall – a lopsided driver line-up. Alpine has already heaped pressure on Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto’s reserve driver hiring – so much so that the situation all feels very Logan Sargeant-esque.

But Haas’s story to this point shows how perception-shedding is possible for F1 teams. And when that occurs, concurrent positive progress is possible. Right now, Haas appears to be a lesson for many of its immediate rivals.

What will Ocon and Bearman achieve in their first year together as Haas team-mates?

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images