02 February 2024 , 15:20
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New Haas chief Ayao Komatsu admitted he expects his team to start the new Formula 1 season dead last.
Komatsu inherited the team last month from long-serving chief Guenther Steiner, who was axed after a decade leading the project. Loughborough University graduate Komatsu was promoted from director of engineering to replace him.
His task is a monumental one. Haas finished at the bottom of the standings last year, for the second time in three seasons - and the Japanese is worried that it could happen again this term, given what he has seen of the team's progress on its new VF24 machines.
Haas showed off their liveries for the season on Friday, which showed few updates compared to last year's car. And, blaming" Steiner's decision to chase a major update in the second half of the 2023 campaign, Komatsu warns that the same will likely be true of its performance.
"Out of the gates in Bahrain, I still think we're going to be towards the back of the grid, if not last," was his glum prediction. "Since I've become team principal, I've spent a lot of time talking to managers - both in the UK and Italy - and they're excited because it's an opportunity to improve and there are areas of improvement everywhere.
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"The reason our launch-spec car is not going to be quick enough in Bahrain is not because of the quality of the people we have here, but it's because we started late and then we stopped for two months to do the Austin upgrade. It really diverted resources, so we lost time there.
"But the team is finding good gains in the wind tunnel, so that's positive and in terms of characteristics, it's going in the right direction. The focus is to have a good test program for Bahrain so that we come away from the test having quality data for the team to analyse and understand which direction to develop the car.
"This means understanding the strength and weakness of the VF-24 accurately, then put a coherent plan together to produce updates on the car, which hasn't happened previously. Drivers will play a stronger role too. Last year, in terms of subjective feedback from drivers, their understanding of what the weakness of the car was clear, however, we weren't then able to reflect that in our car development program.
"With the changes we made in the team, we aim to address this issue with our drivers more in the loop of development paths so that nothing gets lost. As engineers we have all the data from many sensors, but the one thing we can't do is drive the car and feel what's going on. So, we've got to be able to understand and react to drivers' feedback better."
As well as a new livery, Haas also announced a new technical director. Andrea De Zordo is promoted from chief designed to fill the role, replacing Simone Resta who left last month to return to Ferrari.