Haas boss Ayao Komatsu said the team is employing a “totally different mindset” to go out and beat Alpine to sixth in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship.
Haas is seventh in the Constructors’ standings with 54 points after Pierre Gasly’s fifth place in the Qatar Grand Prix turned the fight in Alpine’s favour to the tune of a 59-point tally.
As a result of this, Haas needs to score six points to overhaul its rival F1 outfit and finish sixth in the final championship standings.
To do this, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen will have to combine for eighth and ninth place at the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP and hope Alpine fails to score.
READ MORE – Exclusive: Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg fighting to go out on a high with Haas
Speaking to select media including Motorsport Week on Thursday, Ayao Komatsu said “We’ll try to do our best race and try to score as many points as possible.
“They are five points ahead, so it’s a very different mindset to last week. Last week we didn’t do it very well, but the mindset is totally different.
“It’s not good enough to be basically doing the same as them or scoring the same points. We’ve got to outscore them by six points.
“But then to score six points is a very tall order, so we’ve just got to focus on getting two drivers to score points as high as possible. That’s all we can do.”
A mistake with Hulkenberg’s qualifying preparation in Qatar saw him dumped out of Q1 with an ill-prepared battery deployment.
Komatsu said repeated “mistakes” will take them out of contention for that all-important sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
“We’ve got to make sure we don’t make mistakes like we did in the previous race, the qualifying with Nico,” he said.
“That put Nico completely out of contention for the race. If we’ve done that, it’s game over.
“So we’ve got to really be focused and make sure we get both drivers in the top-10 [of qualifying], or as close to the top-10 as possible and go from there.”
Alpine turning F1 fight with Haas on its head in Brazil is ‘part of racing’
Haas looked relatively comfortable in a two-horse race with RB for sixth in the Constructors’ Standings before the Sao Paulo GP.
A dramatically wet GP at Interlagos and a fortuitously timed red flag saw Esteban Ocon and Gasly finish second and third for Alpine, immediately vaulting the squad into a fight they’d been well out of for the majority of the season.
33 points for Alpine in a race where Haas particularly struggled as Hulkenberg received a black flag and stand-in Oliver Bearman finished 12th could be the deciding factor in where both teams finish in the Constructors’ Championship.
“It’s part of racing,” Komatsu said when prompted to comment.
“[Sao Paulo] was a very difficult weekend. We could have done better.
“[Alpine] could have easily thrown it off the track as well. They performed very well, they operated well, and they judged that red flag condition very well. And both the drivers, they didn’t put a foot wrong did they? To finish second and third. So many experienced drivers went off.
“So yes, it was a one-off, but that kind of thing is part of what makes sports interesting.
“I think we all know that that can happen. I always, always said anything can happen, and then that was the weekend that they grabbed it.
“Like in [Qatar] last weekend as well, they played with the safety car and it worked for them, so that’s why we’re behind.
“But yes, we still try our best to overhaul that here.”
READ MORE – Haas confirms Esteban Ocon and Ryo Hirakawa for F1 post-season test
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