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2024 Formula 1: Haas F1 team Drivers and Principal

Guenther Steiner has taken over as Haas' F1 team engineer, focusing on maximizing their investment and addressing major automotive issues that may take time to resolve.

(Credit: Autosport)

Haas 1 is still trying to leave its imprint on the sport nine years after it first appeared on the F1 horizon. Team co-owner Gene Haas has made a different decision now that engineer Ayao Komatsu has taken over for Guenther Steiner. It’s a risky tactic that depends on getting the most out of their hefty investment.

The everlasting engineer Komatsu is realistic about his expectations for this season. Knowing that major automotive issues take time to resolve, especially when using Ferrari components, Komatsu predicts that they will start the race toward the back of the field, if not last.

Haas has competed in eight full seasons of Formula 1 but has never taken first place or even finished on the podium. The team now has an engineer in charge, following the lead of more successful teams like McLaren and Aston Martin.

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The new principle and the drivers are aware of the significant shift from Steiner to Komatsu.

“I’m not trying to be Guenther Steiner,” says Komatsu. “He’s a very different person. He’s got very different strengths and weaknesses to me. Gene knows that, and if Gene wanted Steiner’s replacement in that way, he’d have appointed somebody else. I’ll try to be the best version of myself rather than trying to be somebody else.”

Steiner is not at all like Komatsu. Steiner was more of a man manager, managing operations without getting his hands dirty, but the 47-year-old is a very technical person who believes in figures and statistics.

Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg

Kevin Magnussen unexpectedly returned to Formula 1 in 2022 with Haas. We say “shock” because, prior to being dropped for 2021, this driver was a member of the team from 2017 to 2020, when he claimed the best drivers’ finish of ninth in 2018.

Even more shocking is the fact that at the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix, Magnussen and Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg got into what is now known as an infamous, profanity-filled argument. Hulkenberg and Magnussen are the ones under pressure to push Haas to the limit.

Eduvast Desk