F1 News: New Haas Chief "Embarrassed" At 2023 Performance - "Gene's Completely Right"

Ayao believes the team can do a better job with the resources it has.

Reflecting on the 2023 season, Haas' new team principal, Ayao Komatsu, has acknowledged the team's last-place finish in the Constructors' Standings as "embarrassing". Consequently, he is determined to bring about a change in the team's results for 2024. 

Last week, following Steiner's departure, Gene Haas elevated his team's trackside engineering director, Komatsu, to the position of team principal. This decision was driven by the owner's desire for a team boss with a more technical orientation. 

Speaking for the first time after taking on his new role, Komatsu told Sky Sports F1: 

"I am never going to try and replicate Guenther Steiner.

"Guenther is a very unique human being and I had a very, very good working relationship, and outside of work we got on really well together.

"Guenther has done a lot for this team. He set the team up to start off with, so I have a huge respect for Guenther and what he has achieved. So I try to improve on what he has left here."

The American team's performance in the 2023 season was consistently hampered by its car's inability to maintain its tires' optimal temperatures, impacting its ability to maintain any race position gained in qualifying. Gene Haas believed that given the team's close technical ties with Ferrari, it was "embarrassing" to be finishing last. Komatsu added:

"I was on the pit wall every single race, an hour and a half or two hours of that race. It is embarrassing to qualify [in a] half decent position and then you know that on Sunday afternoon you are going backwards because of the limitation we have.

"So it is embarrassing. Gene's completely right, and that's not why we are here. So I'm here to improve on that.

"I see certainly things slightly in a different way and [with a] slightly different approach which I'm sure even with certain constraints we have got in this team I believe we can do a better job.

"We can improve quite a lot in various areas and if I didn't think that, I wouldn't have accepted the job."

When asked if he had been given targets to achieve for 2024, he added:

"In terms of the championship, yes.

"I think I'd like to communicate that internally first before I communicate it externally.

"It's a competition so nobody enjoys being last. 

"Of course we can only improve from that."

Haas F1 Press Image