The subtle changes that helped F1 2023's worst team to make notable gains

“Haas is going to be a serious competitor in the years to come…” So says Nico Hulkenberg, and he would know. His two seasons in Formula 1 with the American squad have been stuffed full of potential. In the second, Haas really made good on its promise, the team climbing from dead last in 2023 to running solidly in sixth in the constructors’ championship.

Alpine’s smash-and-grab double podium last time out in Brazil means it has snuck in ahead of Haas and the RB squad hitherto engaged in a close fight for that top-six position. But there are still three races left in F1’s longest-ever season and just a three-point gap to close for Haas, which had been on a run of five consecutive points-scoring races ahead of the Interlagos round.

The fact that Haas is in contention for a possible $40million prize money swing from 2023 highlights how it’s already transformed its fortunes in F1’s congested midfield. Securing sixth would still be adrift of the fifth-place high-water mark of 2018, but still a good result for what remains the smallest squad in the pitlane. The improved VF-24 is key to explaining the team’s progress.

“Last year’s car was inconsistent, it was quite nasty,” explained newly installed team principal Ayao Komatsu back at Bahrain pre-season testing, ahead of which he’d been refusing to consider the team doing any better than the last place in which it ended 2023. “Depending on the conditions – tyre condition, wind condition or track temperature – the car really wasn’t behaving in a predictable manner, whereas this year’s car is consistent.”

Addressing the previous aerodynamic platform instability was a must heading into 2024. Haas’s focus during pre-season testing was to eschew performance running on softer tyres, getting its drivers to buy into new ways of treating the fragile Pirelli rubber for an additional gain on improved in-race tyre management.

It did this with 15 long-run stints over the opening two days of action in Bahrain, with Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen pushing hard on the tyres at different stages, around changes to their differential, brake bias and engine braking settings (the steering wheel ‘tools’ drivers regularly cite for set-up adjustments). The team then analysed the results and combined these with its understanding of the improved aerodynamic stability on its 2024 challenger.

Strong qualifying efforts in 2023 were regularly squandered by struggled to keep the tyres alive, but this is much improved in 2024

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

The results were impressive, with Komatsu left feeling “we can race” after the Bahrain opener. Even so, there remain examples of how tyre management remains a challenge for Haas.

Substitute Ollie Bearman was caught out when the team told him to drive too conservatively when he replaced Magnussen in Baku, when Hulkenberg was bearing down in the other car having realised that the tyres could take more than the team had thought. Then in Brazil, both drivers (with Magnussen again absent, this time due to illness) struggled to keep the medium rubber alive in the sunny sprint race.

But the upshots of Haas’s efforts to improve in a critical area of F1 car performance have been impressive overall. And it was the team’s early results – such as its double points finish in Australia – that convinced team owner Gene Haas to sign off on additional investment where he’d previously been reluctant. This led to Komatsu kicking off the team’s first major hiring spree, as it seeks to expand from its current headcount of 300 by 10%.

"None of the upgrades made our car slower. So, every time we put upgrades on the car, we actually made the car faster" Ayao Komatsu

For any F1 squad, developments during the season are key. On this front, and highlighted last year when it just couldn’t solve its tyre weakness, Haas has typically struggled. But in 2024 it has bucked this trend. McLaren-style sidepods and a reworked floor arrived at Silverstone in July following a stream of comparatively minor parts changes. Then a major package that featured another new floor was unleashed for last month’s United States GP.

“This year, all the upgrades, it’s not like everything worked completely perfectly, but none of the upgrades made our car slower,” Komatsu explained in Mexico last month. “So, every time we put upgrades on the car, we actually made the car faster.

“What’s changed, it’s really that we’ve still got the same people, so details about communication, trying to work together as a team, listen to each other, give people freedom. Really those are, let’s say, simple fundamental things that we really focused on and I’m really pleased that now you’re seeing the result of it.”

There have been less obvious improvements elsewhere. Insiders speak of improved morale compared to its tricky recent run since the false dawn of its early 2022 revival.

Improved morale and numerical reinforcements have also helped Haas on its upward trajectory

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Komatsu confirmed this in Mexico, saying the team “atmosphere is really good”. Examples of this manifesting itself include the team’s frequent knuckling down on urgent repair work – for example, repairing the damage from Bearman’s FP3 crash in Baku, or fitting the upgrade package for Magnussen between the sprint race and GP qualifying at the US GP.

Chief mechanic Toby Brown explains that “one of the problems we’ve had in the past, I think, was a lot of people coming and going”. Improved retention within the pitcrew has resulted in Haas’s average pitstop time improving by a second versus 2023. Gene Haas has also committed to buying a new paddock motorhome for European races from 2025 in an effort to improve surroundings for staff at races, as well as impress sponsors and other guests.

As the 2024 season run-in kicked off ahead of the Austin round, Haas revealed another boost: the team has brought Toyota back to the F1 fold with a technical partnership with its Gazoo Racing division. Komatsu’s friendship with TGR’s general manager of motorsport engineering, Masaya Kaji, was an important part of arranging the new alliance, which brings benefits to each party.

For Haas, it views Toyota’s expertise and resources as a way to speed up development, with the Japanese giant already building a new F1 simulator at the squad’s Banbury facility. In return, Toyota will eventually send its engineers to Haas to acquire F1-level processes and design ideas, while not having to buy its way onto the grid.

Toyota will also fund certain elements of car production for Haas – Komatsu’s example is a front wing for which Dallara, the team’s other technical partner, would have charged a price – via the branding exposure it is now getting via its logos on the VF-24 and Haas team kit.

Haas is also starting its first Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) programme. Once 2025 drivers Bearman and Esteban Ocon have completed their permitted two days each of running from the maximum 20 in any TPC allocation, it’s expected Toyota-contracted candidates will be among the roster. These drivers – such as WEC racer Ryo Hirakawa – could be used as Haas reserve options around the TPC programme.

Haas has also bolstered its Ferrari engine customer relationship, extending it to at least the end of 2028. It will also keep its Dallara arrangement alongside Toyota’s input.

“Ferrari and Dallara have been amazing partners since day one,” Komatsu explained. “Ferrari obviously the PU partner, gearbox, suspension, hydraulics, etc. Those areas, obviously, Toyota’s not touching.

Partnership with Toyota underscores the growing credentials of Haas under Komatsu

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“The area that Toyota’s touching is the area that we don’t get support from Ferrari and that we’ve been doing on our own. That really just adds to our capability and then a chance to understand the car better so that we can make our team more competitive.”

At last month’s Mexican GP, a race where Magnussen successfully repelled Oscar Piastri’s recovering McLaren with strong late-race pace, Komatsu was asked to describe the expected length of the Toyota deal, as well as whether it meant the manufacturer might have a first refusal option for buying Haas in the future.

While this seems unlikely in the short-to-medium term given Toyota has no plans to build its own F1 engine, he nevertheless replied: “To start with, Gene’s not selling the team. Every single time he’s asking me, ‘How can we go better? What can we do to make the car go faster?’

Magnussen’s uptick in form before his Interlagos absence stemmed from how, alongside the Austin upgrades, he was suddenly feeling much more confidence using the VF-24’s brakes

“He’s not interested in selling. I believe he had so many offers, actually, but he refused every single one of them. So, the team’s not up for sale. And then we haven’t even spoken about a first refusal or anything like that. That’s not been the topic. It [the Toyota deal] is a long term, very long term.”

As it now heads back to its home country for the Las Vegas GP, Haas is hoping it can rely on its recent progress to close the unexpected gap to Alpine in the constructors’ standings. This was illustrated by Magnussen’s pace in Mexico, which followed his double Q3 outings at Austin. There, he would have joined Hulkenberg in the points in the GP had he not been given a second pitstop when it was clear that the one-stopper was the better option.

Ironing out such kinks in race strategy decisions is understood to now be in Komatsu’s sights as he heads towards the first anniversary of his promotion to leading Haas in place of the ousted Guenther Steiner. He’ll also want Haas to avoid embarrassing operational situations that have crept up this year, such as its double disqualification from Monaco qualifying for an error made in setting the flap gap on its rear wing, or a fuel miscalculation costing Hulkenberg in Jeddah qualifying. This came around Magnussen’s early season gripes regarding consistently finding traffic on run plans during qualifying.

Magnussen’s uptick in form before his Interlagos absence stemmed from how, alongside the Austin upgrades, he was suddenly feeling much more confidence using the VF-24’s brakes.

Magnussen has performed far more strongly with improved braking feel - and the team is keen to keep him on in some capacity next year

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“This year it’s been very inconsistent on the brakes and I feel like we hopefully fixed that,” he explained in Mexico. “[Before] when I hit the brakes, they sort of have a bit of lag and then they bite a little while after hitting the brakes. It’s that initial feeling that I hit the brakes very hard.

“My peak brake pressure is always way higher than Nico and so I think I just need to feel the brakes switch on immediately, and that’s been really hurting my confidence on entries. It upsets you in a bad way when you already feel uncomfortable with the brakes. So that’s been a big help. To know that they bite on the same way every time, that’s a big thing for me.”

As previously reported by Autosport, Haas has now confirmed that it is in discussions with Magnussen for him to stay with the team in a formal role in 2025 – as a possible part-time reserve and TPC driver, plus using his experience as a McLaren simulator driver.

Next year will be another key chapter in Haas’s young F1 story, one where it will need to make early decisions on when to switch to development for the championship’s new rules era in 2026, alongside needing to keep its constructors’ prize money high in the immediate term. But it will certainly be doing so with renewed strength after its impressive 2024.

After losing out to Alpine in the constructors' battle in Brazil, can Haas bite back in Vegas?

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images