Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu is surprised by the points win in Jeddah, but sees it as proof “that we can race “
Nico Hülkenberg’s first championship point of the Formula 1 season, which he scored at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the weekend, was “incredibly important” for Haas, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu. “It’s like gold dust,” says the Japanese driver.
He knows how difficult it is for the midfield teams to break into the top 10 at all. Normally, the ten cars of the top five teams cover all the points positions, meaning that top 10 places for teams like Haas are rather rare. The point in Jeddah came after an early crash by Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin.
“We have the top five teams, and then we are fighting with so many others for P10, one point, so everything has to be perfect,” says Komatsu, praising his team. “Everyone has done their bit. Operationally, as a race team, it was close to perfection.”
The strategy of bringing Hülkenberg into the pits late worked mainly thanks to a defensive masterstroke by his team-mate Kevin Magnussen, who held off the competition on the track to create a pit window for Hülkenberg.
Although Magnussen’s actions were the subject of controversy afterwards, the prevailing feeling at Haas was one of joy at scoring points. After all, after a disastrous 2023 season, which led to the dismissal of Günther Steiner, they had gone into the season with muted ambitions
Komatsu: “Had a strong car in the race “
When asked if he was surprised to finish in the points in the second race of the season after painting a rather pessimistic picture of expectations when the team was presented, Komatsu admits: “It is a surprise.”
“We are the smallest team, so we have to assume that the progress we have made over the winter will at least be matched by everyone else. At this point in the pre-season, we had not yet addressed our race and tire management issues. “
“Of course the car is better than last year,” emphasizes the team boss. “But you can see that the lap time delta changes depending on the track. We knew that our best time here in qualifying would have been around P12, while we were in Q3 in Bahrain. But in the race we had a strong car.”
This allowed Haas to recover from costly mistakes in qualifying. First Hülkenberg came to a halt in Q2 after a fuel calculation error, and then Magnussen crossed the line too late on his final attempt. In the end, it was only enough for grid positions 15 and 13.
“We understood exactly what happened,” says Komatsu. “The good thing is that our team is transparent and honest. Mistakes happen, we accept them. “
Where Haas really stands in terms of race pace and tire handling will only become clear in the coming weeks. “You have to complete the first four races,” says the team boss. “Bahrain is a very rough track, here in Jeddah there is again little degradation, but a different level of downforce.”
“Then there is Melbourne, another different track, and then Suzuka with more high speed. So you have to drive four or five races to get an overall picture. But at least in Bahrain and Jeddah, which are very different, we proved that we can race.”
“So I think we have a basic car that we can race with,” Komatsu states, “but whether we can make it into the top 10 or P12 or P15 depends on the track and how well we react to the conditions. “
