Guenther Steiner leaves Haas F1 replaced by Ayao Komatsu
10th January 2024After a gruelling 2023 season, Guenther Steiner has left the team with immediate effect and will be replaced by Ayao Komatsu.
Having led the American team since their inception to Formula One, Steiner has left the team with immediate effect, with Director of Engineering Ayao Komatsu in place to replace the Italian.
Steiner, who has become a popular figure in F1 since Netflix’s big hit Drive to Survive, spent the last decade leading the team’s operations.
Under Steiner’s leadership, the team took their first points finish, at their first race at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix, as well as their highest finishing and grid-starting positions of fourth at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix and 2023 Miami Grand Prix respectively.
In his place, Komatsu will use his 20 years’ worth of experience in the sport to lead the team to better pastures. The Japanese engineering director will now take responsibility for the teams’ overall strategy and on-track performance.
Following the announcement, Komatsu commented:
“I’m naturally very excited to have the opportunity to be Team Principal at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team. Having been with the team since its track-debut back in 2016 I’m obviously passionately invested in its success in Formula 1.
“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.”
However, recent performances have not been good enough which has ultimately prompted the change in the senior management.
In 2021, the team effectively gave up their campaign in the sport to benefit from focusing on the 2022 – and current – regulations where they finished 10th and without points.
This strategy worked in 2022 as they moved up to eighth in the constructors standings. However, their inability to convert one-lap pace to point-scoring positions in the races, this year, saw them tumble back down the order and finish last once more.
https://twitter.com/HaasF1Team/status/1745129110391730289
Team Owner at Haas F1, Gene Haas said:
“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.
“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 1.”
While Steiner will be the high-profile exit for the team, it has been announced that Haas technical director Simone Resta has also left the team, alongside the Italian team principal.
That’s all for the article; Guenther Steiner leaves Haas F1 replaced by Ayao Komatsu!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
