Ayao Komatsu replaced Guenther Steiner as the team principal of Haas one year ago and oversaw a huge turnaround at the American team in the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Team owner Gene Haas elected to let Steiner leave at the end of his contract after Haas had their second-worst season ever in F1 during the 2023 campaign. Haas only earned 12 points to come last in the constructors’ standings for a second time after a point-less term in 2021.
Yet after promoting Komatsu from his position as the director of engineering, Haas shot into seventh in the 2024 standings as Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen scored 58 points. Also, Komatsu convinced Toyota to return to F1 after 15 years as a technical partner of Haas.
Haas stunned Ayao Komatsu with their development in qualifying pace
Komatsu removed the ‘fear and terror’ Steiner built at Haas, as well, through his willingness to let their engineers take risks in their push for more performance. Steiner oversaw a very tight ship during his reign, but Komatsu favoured a more motivating approach to see results.
His attitude to the team principal role paid dividends with Haas’ rise to seventh place in the constructors’ championship. But the extent to which Haas improved their qualifying pace in 2024 surprised Komatsu, having ended the campaign just 0.3 seconds shy of pole position.
READ MORE: All to know about Haas F1 Team from team principal to Ferrari and Toyota ties
| Position | Constructors’ Standings | Points |
| 1 |
McLaren Racing |
666 |
| 2 |
Scuderia Ferrari |
652 |
| 3 |
Red Bull Racing |
589 |
| 4 |
Mercedes-AMG Petronas |
468 |
| 5 |
Aston Martin F1 Team |
94 |
| 6 |
Alpine F1 Team |
65 |
| 7 |
Haas F1 Team |
58 |
| 8 |
Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team |
46 |
| 9 |
Williams F1 Team |
17 |
| 10 |
Sauber F1 Team |
4 |
“You know, if you look at the number of points we scored in each quarter of the season, we scored the most points in the last quarter,” Komatsu said, via quotes by Motorsport-Total.
“Then the fact that we can make the car faster with upgrades… In qualifying in Abu Dhabi, the gap to pole position was three-tenths [of a second]. That was incredible!”
Nico Hulkenberg was 0.291s off P1 in qualifying for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Hulkenberg posted a 1:22.886 lap of the Yas Marina Circuit to come third in Q3 for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as McLaren locked out the front row. Yet only Lando Norris with a lap time of 1:22.595 was substantially quicker than Hulkenberg as Oscar Piastri set a 1:22.804.
It marked Hulkenberg’s best result in a qualifying session in 2024 and bettered the personal-best P7 that teammate Magnussen posted in the Mexico City Grand Prix four rounds earlier. Hulkenberg even got into Q3 11 times in 2024, compared to the mere three for Magnussen.
Carlos Sainz in his final qualifying for Ferrari also posted a 1:22.824 to pip Hulkenberg’s run. But Haas could not capitalise on their speed in qualifying after Hulkenberg got a three-place grid for the Abu Dhabi GP for overtaking two cars in the pit exit as traffic built in the tunnel.
| TEAM | HOURS ALLOWED |
| McLaren | 840 |
| Ferrari | 900 |
| Red Bull | 960 |
| Mercedes | 1020 |
| Aston Martin | 1080 |
| Alpine | 1140 |
| Haas | 1200 |
| Racing Bulls | 1260 |
| Williams | 1320 |
| Sauber | 1380 |
Hulkenberg, in his final race at Haas before joining Sauber in 2025, also fell to eighth place in the Abu Dhabi GP while Magnussen saw out his Haas days with a P16 result. It meant Alpine held on to sixth place in the constructors’ standings, ending the year with a seven-point gap.
Komatsu will hope that while Haas lost out on millions in prize money they can make full use of the additional wind tunnel testing hours they earn for finishing lower in the constructors’ standings. It will be increasingly important ahead of F1’s chassis regulation changes in 2026.
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