Haas Formula 1 boss Ayao Komatsu has revealed the team’s uptick in results this season has convinced owner Gene Haas to invest in an unprecedented hiring spree.
Komatsu was promoted to the helm prior to the season commencing as Gene Haas opted to make a change and oust long-standing Team Principal Guenther Steiner.
The unexpected decision came with Haas having encountered a tumultuous campaign last term that saw it languish bottom for the third time in the last four seasons.
But while Komatsu chose to temper expectations heading into the season, Haas has accumulated more points in 14 rounds (27) than it managed all last season (11).
Having proven the American squad can overcome more fancied teams with fewer resources, Gene Haas has now authorised an expansion to Haas’ overall workforce.
“[We showed] we can improve the performance,” Komatsu told Autosport.
“Then what we need to convince [the] owner is performance. He’s always looking at, ‘We want to get better, how can we go quicker?’
“So, if we can show baby steps that if we work together, even with the same resources…
“Now, even though we are on a huge recruitment [drive] that we’ve never seen before in the history of Haas F1 Team, we haven’t actually got those people on board yet, so we are largely still the same size.
“But when you’re working together, it’s just the atmosphere is so much different.
“And when the atmosphere is so much different, when there’s so much positivity, of course people function better, people produce performance. That’s the biggest difference I think.”
Komatsu has disclosed how encouraging Haas Automation CEO Bob Murray to visit the team’s Banbury base and select F1 races was pivotal to Gene Haas’ reversal.
The ex-Lotus engineer has explained that exposing the side’s senior management to the F1 world helped bolster his chances of receiving the growth that he desired.
“My strategy was to get people like Bob, who has been Gene’s right-hand man for 38 years, onboard, and Gene onboard, get them involved, get them to realise what it takes to be successful in Formula 1,” Komatsu elucidated.
“The previous strategy might have been the opposite.
“But my strategy from day one is, ‘If the owner doesn’t understand the reality, then of course he’s going to get annoyed because he would expect the result that we cannot achieve’.
“But to get his expectations right, I really needed him to understand more about what it takes to be successful in Formula 1. And then Bob is a very key part of that. So, it’s great.
“And then what I’m really pleased about, is Bob made that commitment as well when he signed me. He said, ‘Ayao, I’m going to support you, I’m going to work with you’.
“It just goes to the show from Gene and Bob, our parent company, there’s commitment. And then Bob 100% is backing it up by his actions. I’m really grateful about that.”
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