Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu has ruled out the American Formula 1 outfit being sold to new technical partner Toyota in the near future.
Haas announced a technical alliance with Toyota Gazoo Racing mere days before the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
Since F1 visited Austin, Toyota Gazoo Racing branding has been featured on Haas’ cars, plus the overalls of its drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg.
Toyota will aid Haas in aerodynamics, simulator and testing programmes, but Komatsu has said there is no hint the Japanese marque will take over owning Gene Haas’ eponymous team.
“Gene’s not selling the team,” Komatsu said during the Friday press conference at the Mexico City GP.
“Every single time he’s asking me, how can we go better? What can we do to make the car go faster?
“He’s not interested in selling. I believe he had so many offers, actually, but he refused every single one of them.
“So the team’s not up for sale. And then we haven’t even spoken about a first refusal [for Toyota] or anything like that. That’s not being on the topic.”
However, Komatsu admitted that the deal with Toyota is “long term, very long term.”
Toyota partnership won’t impact Ferrari/Dallara deals
Haas, the smallest team on the F1 grid, relies on multiple technical partners to get the job done.
Toyota comes in to join Haas’ existing alliances with chassis builder Dallara and technical partner Ferrari.
Ferrari supplies Haas with the utmost limit of shareable parts in F1’s technical regulations, including power units, gearbox and rear suspension.
Moreover, Haas has a design facility based in Maranello, acting as Ferrari’s next-door neighbour.
Komatsu explained how Toyota will complement Haas’ existing arrangements.
“Yeah, obviously, Ferrari and Dallara has been amazing partners since day one,” he said.
“And then as you can see, you know, Ferrari, obviously, the PU partner, gearbox, suspension, hydraulics, et cetera.
“Those areas, obviously, Toyota’s not touching.
“You know, the area that Toyota’s touching is the area that we don’t get support from Ferrari, and that we’ve been doing it on our own.
“So, yeah, that really just adds to our capability and then a chance to understand the car better so that we can make our team more competitive.”
Toyota’s partnership with Haas marks a tentative return to F1 after the Japanese marque ran its works entry from 2002 through 2009.
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