The partially North Carolina-based Haas Formula 1 squad has determined that after several seasons at the back of the grid, it needs to mix things up a little. The team’s firebrand Italian-American principal Guenther Steiner has been kicked to the curb following an abysmal 2023 season which saw the team score just four points-paying finishes. The team’s best season under Steiner was 2018, where Romain Grosjean scored a fourth-place finish, but that season too was marred with seven retirements and two disqualifications. Steiner will be replaced by Ayao Komatsu, who will be promoted from Director of Engineering to Team Principal.
“I’d like to start by extending my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future,” commented Gene Haas, Team Owner. “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.
We have had some successes, but we need to be consistent in delivering results that help us reach our wider goals as an organization. We need to be efficient with the resources we have but improving our design and engineering capability is key to our success as a team. I’m looking forward to working with Ayao and fundamentally ensuring that we maximize our potential—this truly reflects my desire to compete properly in Formula One.”
Steiner gained a fan following after the launch of Netflix’s “Drive To Survive” series. In fact his brash personality and quickness to fly off the handle is likely a big part of what made Drive To Survive the success that it is. Most of his time on screen was spent berating his drivers and saying “fuck” a whole lot.
Steiner found some early success managing Prodrive’s 1997 European Rally Championship victory, and was promoted to Ford’s WRC program in 2000. Ford appointed Steiner the principal of its failure Jaguar F1 team in 2001. When Red Bull bought out Jaguar, Steiner was invited onboard, but was ultimately replaced by Adrian Newey and kicked stateside to run Red Bull’s NASCAR team. He was the driving force behind Gene Haas’ ambitious Formula 1 efforts, hiring all of the core staff and developing partnerships with Dallara and Ferrari. Eight years later, he’s out. Onward and upward, I suppose?
“I’m naturally very excited to have the opportunity to be Team Principal at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team,” stated Komatsu. “Having been with the team since its track-debut back in 2016 I’m obviously passionately invested in its success in Formula One. 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.
“We are a performance-based business. We obviously haven’t been competitive enough recently which has been a source of frustration for us all. We have amazing support from Gene and our various partners, and we want to mirror their enthusiasm with an improved on-track product. We have a great team of people across Kannapolis, Banbury, and Maranello, and together I know we can achieve the kind of results we’re capable of.”
Komatsu began his motorsport career as a tire engineer for British American Racing in 2003 before moving to Renault as performance engineer for Nelson Piquet, Jr., Romain Grosjean, and Vitaly Petrov. When Grosjean left to drive for Haas, Komatsu went with him, working as trackside engineering director.