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Ayao Komatsu has snapped back at former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner's comments that the team downplayed its changes too much in pre-season. The American team has had a brilliant start to the season with three points finishes in the first three races.
This is, however, a far cry from what the team expected to achieve in 2024, as Ayao Komatsu was quite vocal pre-season and said that he wouldn't be surprised if Haas was last in Bahrain. In the first race of the season, the car was not at the bottom of the pecking order and Nico Hulkenberg even made it to Q3.
In the second and third races of the season, the team scored points as well. The reason Ayao Komatsu had claimed that Haas would struggle in 2024 was because the team's schedule had gotten delayed when it comes to car development. Former team principal Guenther Steiner, however, felt that the team had overplayed its struggles.
Talking about how he knew already that the car was going to be good, Steiner said that he'd seen the numbers and knew that the car would be good in 2024. Komatsu, however, refuted these claims and said that solely looking at his team's numbers, he could not make that assertion and hence felt that the team could struggle.
As quoted by RacingNews365, he said:
"So if you just look at the wind-tunnel numbers, I knew how much we were finding, but I have got to assume that everybody else is finding at least the same. I know how late we started [development on the 2024 car] because we stopped for two months for the Austin upgrade and we are the smallest team - it is not like we have got more advanced methodology."
He added:
"So that is what my baseline is, and it is not about bullshitting or putting up a smokescreen or anything like that, that is my expectation. Knowing that number, I'm sorry, but it is not a big number, right, so there is no way I thought that it would be good enough for P7, no way."
Haas team principal touches on Alpine's underperformance
The Haas team principal also touched on Alpine's underperformance this season, as the French team has taken a major step back. Last season, the Enstone-based squad was the 6th best team on the grid. This season, however, the team has suffered drastically and is the slowest car.
The Haas team principal specifically talked about how it was just not possible for him to predict what would happen with Alpine and hence make a bold prediction that could pressure the team if it went wrong. He said:
"How can you expect Alpine to do what they did? You cannot bank on somebody messing it up, you've got to assume that they are doing a good job, and internally as well, I don't want to see my people with the car in Bahrain in 10th [in the standings], and then get depressed with heads down. I want to make sure that they know what they're doing, and they just didn't have enough time to put enough performance on the car - it is not your fault if we are P10 in Bahrain, that is the internal message."
He added:
"It is not a bullshit smokescreen, it was my expectation and then in pre-season testing, after the long runs, I thought we could maybe fight two or three other teams, and be somewhere around P7 [in the Constructors']."
Haas, meanwhile, has had a brilliant start to the season and the American team will be hoping to build on this in the coming races.
