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Haas were one of the most impressive outfits in the Formula 1 paddock in 2025 under the leadership of Ayao Komatsu.
When Haas made their Formula 1 debut in 2016, it was Guenther Steiner who took charge as team principal.
Steiner quickly became a star of Drive to Survive, and after being dismissed by Haas ahead of the 2024 campaign, he’s now a prominent pundit and involved in MotoGP.
Ayao Komatsu was named as his replacement and became one of the first team principals in the paddock with an engineering background.
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It’s turned out to be a brilliant decision, with Haas scoring 79 points in 2025, only 10 fewer than the far bigger and richer Aston Martin team.
Although Komatsu has some concerns about their ongoing partnership with Ferrari, the team are in a far healthier position than a few years ago when they failed to score a point with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin as their drivers.
The former race engineer has now shared what a ‘disaster’ in the team under Steiner’s stewardship was and what he’s been working on behind the scenes to improve things.
READ MORE: Who is Guenther Steiner? All you need to know from F1 career to net worth
Ayao Komatsu says communication at Haas was a ‘disaster’ under Guenther Steiner
Komatsu was speaking on the High Performance Podcast about Haas’ disastrous first race of 2025 when they were a long way off the pace.
Reflecting on how the previous management team under Guenther Steiner would have handled the issue, he said: “Yeah, there would have been certain people to start with who I don’t think we would have had alignment on accepting what the fundamental issues are because communication was a disaster, right?
“And also the transparency in terms of politics, communication, which is such a key, by the way, just to put everybody on the same page and also create a safe space where nobody’s blaming each other.
“The only thing that’s important now is to find a solution. Professionally, that wasn’t happening before.
How much have Haas improved since Ayao Komatsu took over from Guenther Steiner?
“So, before, if this had happened like two or three years ago, it would have been just arguing forever about what the real issue is.”
Jake Humphrey then asked Komatsu if he could have gone to Steiner with these issues, and he continued: “I tried my best,” and when asked if he felt ‘helpless’, the Haas team boss explained: “I mean, if I’m totally honest, I was ready to quit in Baku 2023.
“I just couldn’t see how we can move forward like this. People were not talking to each other, no transparency, no alignment, no transparent discussion.
“And it’s just people not going in the same direction, a unified direction. We are not behaving as a team.
“I felt like I put everything on the table, but in my humble view, it wasn’t happening.”
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Haas face uphill battle to be competitive during the 2026 Formula 1 season
Haas continued developing their 2025 car much longer than many of their rivals, which helped them deliver some brilliant results.
Oliver Bearman went on the longest scoring run in the team’s history and matched their best-ever result at the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix.
Steiner described Bearman as the most improved driver of 2025, and he’ll hope the upcoming campaign is the springboard he needs to secure a race seat at Ferrari.
However, Haas have the fewest resources of all 11 teams on the grid this year, making preparation for a huge rule change difficult.
Their burgeoning relationship with Toyota will help, but Komatsu has his work cut out if he wants to replicate the success they enjoyed last season.
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