Komatsu encouraged after 'pretty decent' pre-season test for Haas

Haas was ahead of schedule during pre-season testing and has a car that could be more competitive in races than first expected, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu.

Haas finish bottom of the constructors’ championship standings after a tough 2023, often showing strong pace in qualifying but struggling in races. After taking over from Guenther Steiner in the off-season, before seeing the car run Komatsu had warned that the start to this year could be tough, but now is more positive about how the start to track running has gone.

“Very good, really good,” Komatsu told RACER. “It’s not perfect, but I would say pretty decent. Everybody’s focused on what we needed to achieve coming away from these three days of testing, so based on that we formulated our program, executed it, and the last couple of days have gone very, very well. We achieved our objectives, so much so that we adjusted yesterday’s program actually.

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“So we are ahead of where we absolutely needed to be for the test program. Kevin (Magnussen) completed a first qualifying simulation and race simulation in the morning, Nico (Hulkenberg) took over and completed a race simulation too, so progress has been great.”

With that assessment, Komatsu admits he has been pleasantly surprised with the performance Haas has been able to get out of its 2024 car, pointing to driver confidence as one of the main factors.

“Only next week will tell, so I don’t really want to say too much without being fully confident, but what I am seeing is encouraging. The fact that I’m telling you that we are ahead in terms of the test program tells you it is slightly better than what I expected, if you like.

“I think that’s because the fundamental base of the car, and consistency, even though you can see on the GPS trace we are still lacking lots of downforce – in the high-speed corners we are slow – but in terms of characteristics, consistency, predictability, there is an improvement.

“So that’s something that both Nico and Kevin can get the most out of more consistently, which they couldn’t do last year. So that’s been a decent improvement.”

Magnussen himself shared Komatsu's sentiments, saying he's feeling progress from the car in race trim.

"We’ve been doing a lot of high-fuel race running, trying to address that issue, and I think we’re going somewhere," Magnussen said. "We haven’t fixed the issue completely but hopefully it’s enough to make a difference on Sunday. I expect it to be very close between all teams again this year.”