Chapter 1: What leadership lessons has Ayao Komatsu learned since becoming Haas Team Principal?
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Haas have started the new era of Formula One in style.
So is it too early to talk about loftier ambitions? For me to sit here and talk about the wins is too far away. So our medium-term target in the next three to five years is basically trying to establish ourselves consistently at the front of the midfield pack.
Only when you get there, then we can look at, okay, what are we still lacking to challenge for podiums on the merit, to challenge for the race wins on the merit. And if Oli Behrmann continues to impress, can Haas keep hold of him?
If we've done a great job with Oli, and then Oli performed so well that Ferrari really wants to take him the following year, we have to be happy that we've done our job.
Hello and welcome to F1 Beyond the Grid. I'm Tom Clarkson and my guest this week is Haas Team Principal Ayo Komatsu. Ayo's only been in charge of the team since 2024, but what I think comes across in our chat is how much of a natural leader he is. He empowers people, he listens to them, and he makes the right calls when necessary.
Just look at how the team recovered from a very difficult start to last season. We talk a lot about drivers. What does Io expect from Esteban Ocon this season? How much potential does Oli Behrmann have?
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Chapter 2: How did Haas recover from a difficult start in the previous season?
That's one thing we really wanted to prove. We knew we could do it, but before pre-24, let's say, you know, people are telling us that, you know, Haas cannot develop the car throughout the season. You know, we proved that's completely wrong. And then that gives us lots of confidence to the people.
But again, only way we managed to do it is really to empower the people, those technical people, then listen to them. They need to tell me like, you know, why they couldn't develop it before. Then when they told me, it was actually same as my understanding. So it was pretty then clear to me what I needed to put in place to make sure that we can develop the car.
So it really helps that you are an engineer by trade because you can understand the weaknesses.
It's not actually necessarily the engineering thing, to be honest, because the issue wasn't the technical ability. That wasn't the one actually stopping us developing a car pre-24. It was more about communication, organization, the structure, mentality, you know, rule of engagement, how we work together.
So once I understand, let's say if this group of people tells me, oh, we saw this was the issue. This group of people tells me, no, no, no, no. We saw this was the issue. Why was they not aligned? You know, they're both technically capable people, but somehow it's just that they weren't working together on the same page.
So for me, really just making sure, you know, put everybody on the same page. We are aligned regardless of if everybody agrees or not. At least we go into a certain direction knowing why we're going that way. For me, it's very, very important that everybody understands why we're doing things that we are doing, even if you don't agree.
Worst thing would be like everybody's thinking, I don't understand why we're doing this. No idea this is waste of time. Why are we doing this? Having that every day, that's not very positive, is it? Whereas even if, let's say, if you don't agree the direction we're going, if you know at least why, then that's still positive.
How have you improved this communication? I think it's really interesting. Are you now overseeing weekly meetings with everybody that wasn't happening before? Or is Andrea Di Zordo doing that?
Yeah, again, everybody's doing it because again, Andrea is our technical director, great guy. Honestly, since almost the first day I met him in my previous position, in his previous position, I knew he was a great guy. He's technically highly capable, of course.
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Chapter 3: What are Haas' targets for the new era of Formula 1?
And Andrew can do that. And he's a great communicator. And he's, again, very humble guy, really eager to learn every day. So, yeah, he's a great technical director. But in terms of communication, it's not about doing meetings. It's more about, let's say, setting a clarity. Everybody got to know the objectives, right? Yeah. what are we here for? What are we trying to target?
Then everybody got to understand, okay, in terms of global strategy, how are we going to try to achieve that target? In order to achieve those targets, how are we going to work together? Then in terms of putting people in the right place, like Andrea being technical director for me, that was absolutely no-brainer. He was a clear choice for me.
Then having certain people in certain positions and a slight reorganization in terms of structure so that this communication is almost forced. It has to happen. This closed loop has to happen. So it's just, you know, putting people in the right place and slightly restructuring that really sort of like supports what we're trying to do.
And this is why you reorganized the engineering teams at the racetrack at the start of last year as well?
Yes and no. So initially, obviously car comes from, let's say, factory, right? You know, so the truck side team is largely a user. So our, let's say, fundamental problem was that car wasn't competitive. But now we reorganized those technical people in Italy that we can produce a decent car. Then it was pretty clear operationally at the truck side, we are not getting best out of the car.
We are not providing a good enough feedback to... designers, aerodynamicists to improve the car. So then we really needed to refresh our truck side team. And the reason we did it last year was of course we knew that 2026 would be brand new regulation.
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Chapter 4: What does Ayao expect from Esteban Ocon this season?
You know, you cannot or you can, but I didn't want to make a wholesale change on the truck side when we have to deal with a brand new regulation. So for me, the last year was the correct time to do it. And then again, it just
accepting and understanding that okay we are very young team here this trackside team is young we lack experience so again there's lots of support required from all sorts of directions but as long as we accept that this is why we're doing it we have to go through the pain together then we have to put ourselves in a better position for this year and next year and i do believe that even though we got a young team at the trackside i think we got good people so it will come
Now, this segues beautifully into something I wanted to ask you about next, which is that week between Melbourne and China last year. Now, I don't want to bring back bad memories, but I think it defines your leadership beautifully because you come to Melbourne in 2025 and the car is like half a second slower than anything else. Yeah. It was a really difficult weekend.
Then you go to China just seven days later and Olly Behrman is only a couple of tenths off getting into Q3. How did you do that turnaround and how difficult were those conversations in that seven day period?
yeah that that was a very very difficult moment you know because bar in testing as far as we are concerned went pretty well you know so we thought car was decent we didn't see any huge issues then come to melbourne here in the high speed screen car just wasn't performing when i first saw the data i thought ah okay it's a fast couple of laps drivers just taking it extremely easy but then when i realized
Oh, you know, that is the limit of this card. And when I realized the extent of this problem that we only saw here in Melbourne, FP1, honestly made me feel sick. Because like you said, it wasn't just a tenth or a few tenths. It was like six tenths. it was bad. Then it's not something we anticipated whatsoever. So it was a surprise to us. But of course, initially it was a shock, right?
But then you had to quickly come to acceptance to say, okay, we've got a huge issue here.
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Chapter 5: How much potential does Ollie Behrmann have as a driver?
Then first step is to really to understand what the issue is, what the core problem is. Then agree amongst the senior engineers at least what the problem is. You know, if you're arguing about what the problem is. No, no, this is actually not the problem. This is the issue. That is the issue. That's not good, right? So first step is to align everyone. What is the problem?
Then once we accept it straight away, this is the fundamental aerodynamic issue that we didn't anticipate, but this is the issue. And then we didn't understand the mechanism. So next step is like, okay, how are we going to go about understanding the mechanism? But we haven't got much time. Now I said to everyone,
like next weekend back to work in china we cannot change the car but circuit characteristic is very different so if we don't have this specific issue i believe from what we saw in berlin we can still perform however the race after in japan three weeks time it's got that sector one high speed sequence if we don't change anything we're gonna be absolutely nowhere basically but last
by country margin. So we cannot accept that. I said to do nothing for Japanese Grand Prix in three weeks time is not option. That was very, very clear.
Chapter 6: What is Ayao's relationship with team owner Gene Haas?
But then also I said to them, look, to bring something to Japan, we cannot go through the normal process.
because we just simply hasn't got time right to do CFD using the wind tunnel testing evaluate then produce the parts we run out of time so I said I take the risk I accept the risk but please look back from the end of 24 where you guys produced a very very competitive car to where we are now VF25 launch
there must be some hint at some point that we are a bit complacent on certain matrix in terms of our aero oscillation issues. So we got to be able to find some hint and then I leave it to your engineering judgment because you're all capable people who managed to develop the head out of VF24, right? Finished essentially the fifth fastest car in 24.
So we are the same people, you are the same people. We can do it. So look through those sequences and then take your best engineering guesstimate and then have one or two items that we can bring to Suzuka. And if we got it right in Suzuka, brilliant. You know, we know that's the direction to solve. We can keep going. But even if we get it wrong... At least we know that's not the direction to go.
Whereas if we don't do anything, we're not going to learn anything. We're going to be in exactly the same position as here in Melbourne. So I said that's not an option. But then, of course, being a former engineer, I really wanted to ask questions about how about looking at this, how about looking at this area, how about this? But I really, really forced myself not to do any of that.
After I set that clear, let's say, guideline, okay, this is the problem. Look through this. Option not to do anything in Suzuka is not option. Then I take a risk, fine, to cut corners. So you guys just tell me one or two things you can do in Suzuka. I just left it at that. And that was very, very difficult. Very difficult. But I'm so glad afterwards that...
I just shut up and didn't say anything after that. And then our guys, Andrea Di Zolto, our technical director, head of aero, Davide Zei came to me and said, Ayao, we look through all this and we think this and this. What do you think? I said, if you think that, just go ahead. Then trying to make it. Now we got one set made for FP1. The second set was coming for FP2, if I remember correctly.
We did a back-to-back car across the cars, night and day. So, you know, full credit to them. But I'm really glad that I didn't micromanage. I just trusted them and then empowered them to say, look, this is the direction. Risk is on me. Go for it.
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Chapter 7: What role does Toyota play as Haas' technical partner?
And then full credit to them. They did it. It was brilliant. So I was really, really pleased about that in terms of teamwork. There was no blame. Everyone accepted the problem straight away. Got on with it. found the solution and then production guys, program management guys, they pushed like hell to get those parts to Suzuka from race one to race three.
So that really is a testament to the teamwork, I think. And then I'm really glad that, you know, when the times are tough, we come together really strongly. And then I'm kind of glad that that happened in 25, not 24. So I eat a 12 months after, you know, we started this new structure, right? Imagine if that happens in 24 race one, I think we'd have disintegrated. But- Why?
Because I think, so throughout 24, we are building foundations, right? in a new way of doing things, working together, teamwork, supporting each other, transparency, no-blame culture. So we are building those foundations. So by the time we hit the huge issue in Melbourne, at least we had the foundation, we had the respect and trust to each other.
So when we are having those meetings in Melbourne, late at night, when Europe wakes up with all the senior guys, we all been working together previous 12 months in this way. So there's no-blame culture. Everybody understood that, okay, we just got to work together to solve this, no bullshit. But imagine if that happened in 24 March, where we only started working in this way a couple of months.
I don't think we'd have had that level of togetherness and trust and respect to each other. So in a blessing in disguise that we had the 12 months to build that foundation. And then that huge challenge was there. And then that made us, you know, the fact that we came out on the other side in a good way in the process is so important, right? You cannot control the result.
quite often, but you can definitely control the process. And I do believe that we did it in the right process, right way. So then the fact that that was positive gave us even more confidence, like, wow, yes, initially it was terrible that we missed it somewhere along the development of 25, but once we accepted we missed it, It's no point crying about it, right? So that's happened.
We just, how are we going to improve from here? Everybody focused on that.
And you kicked on from there and then fast forward six, seven months and Oli Behrmann finishes P4 in Mexico on merit in front of a McLaren and a Mercedes. And the seeds of that performance actually were sown in the three weeks between Melbourne and Suzuka earlier in the year. Is that what we're saying?
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I still remember that Melbourne or last year, 12 months ago, very, very well because none of us left much, right? You know, of course, here at the truck until curfew, we're looking at data and then we're trying to understand what's going, go back to the hotel, now doing a video meeting with the guys back in Italy because Europe wakes up.
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Chapter 8: What does success look like for Haas in the upcoming season?
Did that change his attitude towards you, towards the team, towards Formula One?
Yeah, I think overall, I think it did. Because what I've seen during 24 was that confirmation, you know, he's actually a very, very enthusiastic guy, very passionate guy. But when you see him at the racetrack, you don't necessarily see that. You know, he's a very private individual, very introvert. He doesn't talk to many people.
And then, of course, you know, jet lag is quite hard on him as well. So he tends to be quite quiet. And he only talks to people he's comfortable talking with. Then that can be only... me or maybe one more person. So maximum three people in the team, right? So people don't actually know him, don't see the exciting side of Jin.
And then when we decided like, so first, you know, last year is our 10th season. So I really wanted to celebrate properly, wanted to tell our 10 year story to people. Right. So then when I got OK to do that from Gene, the next step for me was to get him over there. I said, look, good to do this amazing festival. And you got to come and experience this. Then he said, yeah, OK, I'll come.
I'll come. Once I got him to agree to come, my next step was, OK, Gene, by the way, this is your team. You know, you put everything into it. You haven't driven it. Why don't you drive it? Yeah. So that was my next step. And then he agreed to it, which was brilliant. Then because I know he's a passionate guy, I really wanted him to enjoy what he's created. So that's the first and foremost.
So like, come on, drive it while you can. So that's why I really wanted him to drive. And also then I thought, secondly, for people to see
the enjoyment, smile on his face, you know, how much of a passionate guy he is, both internally and externally, I saw that be really, really positive, because lots of team members don't see that, like I said, let alone the fans, it's amazing, so we did a shakedown at Silverstone, because he was worried, I said, look, Gene, don't worry, we'll make it as simple as possible, we did a shakedown at Silverstone, and then, uh,
make sure you're comfortable with seat all the controls and everything else then did it and then when he got out of the car in this silverstone shakedown and he was just beaming with smile and he said thank you to every single mechanics and shook their hand that never ever happened
Even that alone was, for me, worthwhile doing because our guys, the guys actually building the car, realized, oh, wow, this is Gene, the side of Gene that they've never seen. And then we actually went to Goodwood. And then exactly the same, he was beaming with smile, enjoying it. You know, he had a lot to say about driving the car.
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