47-year-old team principal admits 2024 F1 car won’t be good enough after late development start

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New Haas boss Ayao Komatsu has admitted that the team started development on this year’s car too late.

It’s a worrying assessment from the 47-year-old just a month before he sits on the Haas pit wall for the first time as team principal during pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Speaking to Formula 1’s official website, Ayao Komatsu believes that he’s only being realistic about the prospects of the American team heading into 2024.

It’s safe to say that an awful lot went wrong for Haas during the 2023 season.

Signing Nico Hulkenberg in place of Mick Schumacher looked like a shrewd move and the experienced German looked quick in qualifying.

However, he admitted that driving the car last season wasn’t fun and ended up running an old spec towards the end of the season.

Guenther Steiner ultimately paid for that underperformance with his job this month after leading the team throughout their Formula 1 history.

Ayao Komatsu has been trusted with furthering the development of Haas but has already tried to temper expectations.

It’s no wonder that Hulkenberg has already been linked with drives elsewhere on the grid given how little Haas have offered recently.

Kevin Magnussen’s future is in doubt too and he’ll want a quick car underneath him to convince the team he’s the right option going forward.

Komatsu thinks Haas are behind on 2024 car development

Speaking about the upcoming season, Komatsu said: “The ’24 car is a clear step, but whether it’s good enough against the competition to start off with, I don’t think so, because we started so late.

“We changed the concept so late as well, and then by actually doing the Austin upgrade, we diverted our resources a little bit.

“I’m realistic with the car we’re putting out in Bahrain, but not in a negative manner. It’s not the fault of our engineers, our guys. They’re good people.

“For me, then the key is whatever the car in Bahrain, whatever problem we see, we try to understand it and then move from that point as a team.

“We are a small team as you know. We’ve got to move as one, otherwise, we don’t stand a chance.

“To answer your question directly, it is a step forward. Is it good enough? No. But what we do from that point is how we can show that we can improve the team or not.”

Haas and Komatsu will have to accelerate the development of their latest car to avoid being left behind this season.

They were already struggling against the likes of Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri last year and both teams are likely to push on over the winter.

Audi’s increased involvement with Sauber means they’ll be looking up the grid while AlphaTauri will be working more closely with Red Bull this year.

The last thing Formula 1 or Haas needs is a team left behind at the back of the grid.

Based on the noises coming out of the team, there’s a chance that might happen.