Ayao Komatsu says Mark Webber once left ‘gifted’ F1 driver ‘crying on the floor’ after a collision

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Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu only took over from Guenther Steiner at the start of the 2024 Formula 1 season, but has been in the paddock for a lot longer than that.

Ayao Komatsu started his career with BAR before joining the Enstone-based team now known as Alpine, but they were previously known as Renault and Lotus.

He joined Haas when the team made their Formula 1 debut in 2016 as a trackside engineer and was Gene Haas’ chosen replacement for Guenther Steiner when he departed ahead of the 2024 campaign.

Komatsu has admitted that aspects of working for Haas were a ‘disaster’ under Steiner, but it wasn’t the first crisis he had faced during his time in the paddock.

He recalled an incident while working for Lotus between Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber that left the Frenchman in tears.

READ MORE: Mark Webber was once told by F1 team boss that he made a ‘mistake’ by not offering him a contract

How much have Haas improved since Ayao Komatsu took over from Guenther Steiner?

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Romain Grosjean left ‘crying on the floor’ after Mark Webber incident at the Japanese Grand Prix

Komatsu spoke about being Grosjean’s race engineer on the High Performance Podcast and the difficulty he had at the start of his career.

He was banned for causing a collision in Belgium and had a run-in with Webber at the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, which left the Australian calling Grosjean a ‘first-lap nutcase’.

Komatsu said: “That was very, very difficult, and I was very young as well as a race engineer.

“If I had five years more life experience, I feel that I could have helped Romain in a different way.

“But, as a race engineer or as a human being, I didn’t have that life experience to help him more. So I felt really bad about it afterwards, to be honest.

“For instance, that famous incident in Suzuka where he drove into Mark Webber, then Mark Webber came after the race.

“He came to Romain’s room and was punching and kicking every single thing you can think of, and then stormed off, and Romain was crying on the floor.

“For me, even if I was at fault, if somebody came kicking down all my panels, I would kick this guy out right.

“But he couldn’t do that, but then in that emotional status, I didn’t know what the best way for me to help him was.”

Grosjean was attempting to stay ahead of Sergio Perez, but spun Webber in the process, and the Red Bull driver could only recover to ninth, while Grosjean eventually retired with a gearbox issue.

However, Komatsu was quick to defend Grosjean and made a startling comparison between himself, Fernando Alonso and current Haas driver, Oliver Bearman.

READ MORE: Guenther Steiner admits he told Romain Grosjean it would be ‘painful’ to race for Haas

Ayao Komatsu believes Romain Grosjean was as ‘naturally gifted’ as Fernando Alonso

Komatsu was also asked if Alonso is the most naturally talented driver he’s ever worked with and responded: “Out of the drivers I worked with, yes. But, naturally talented, it’s very difficult to say because Romain Grosjean was very, very naturally talented on his day.

“He was so quick. Ollie Bearman is incredibly quick. So, it’s difficult to say hands down he was the most naturally gifted.

“But I’d say, you know, people like Ollie Bearman, Romain Grosjean were naturally very, very fast.”

Bearman is being lined up as a potential replacement for Lewis Hamilton, highlighting just how highly-rated he is in the paddock.

He’ll be delighted that he’s already been compared to Alonso, and while Grosjean made some rash moves at the beginning of his career, he was undoubtedly very fast.

Grosjean’s 10 F1 podiums don’t paint the full picture, and alongside Kimi Raikkonen in 2013, he formed a very formidable partnership at the front of the grid.