After a little over two decades in Formula One, Japanese engineer Ayao Komatsu will now get a chance to run his own team.
The Haas F1 team on Wednesday announced the departure of Guenther Steiner, the popular, yet foul-mouthed team principal whose colorful language and heart-on-his-sleeve personality made him one of the stars of Netflix’s “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” series.
“Moving forward as an organization it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances. In appointing Ayao Komatsu as Team Principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management,” Haas owner Gene Haas said in a statement posted on the team’s website.
Komatsu, who cuts a quieter figure compared with the bombastic Italian American, faces a tall order in turning around the fortunes of a team that has been stuck in neutral for most of its eight seasons in F1. Haas has finished last in the constructors’ standings in two of the past three seasons, including in 2023 when the team failed to score points at any of the final seven races.
Ayao Komatsu, then a race engineer with the Lotus F1 team, speaks with driver Romain Grosjean during a practice session at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia in 2014.
| Reuters
Komatsu, who has been with Haas since the team debuted in 2016, moves up to the top job from his previous position as director of engineering.
“I’m looking forward to leading our program and the various competitive operations internally to ensure we can build a structure that produces improved on-track performances,” the Tokyo native said in the statement. “We are a performance-based business. We obviously haven’t been competitive enough recently which has been a source of frustration for us all.”
Haas’ team principal Guenther Steiner arrives at the track ahead of the Italian Grand Prix in Monza in September.
| Reuters