“I hope he is actually proud,” stated Komatsu of Gene Haas. “He is a real racer. All he cares about is for us to be aggressive and he had a dedication to come back to F1 when it wasn’t like this 10 years in the past.
“He got here in, put his personal cash, his personal firm behind it, after which created this staff. He is not focused on promoting it in any respect, he is 100% targeted on taking this staff to the following step, so I am actually glad that now we have an proprietor like that actually behind us, pushing us.”
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‘Virtually the whole lot needed to shut down…’
All through their time within the sport, Haas have been the smallest staff on the grid, each when it comes to personnel and price range. They’ve often punched above their weight – but in addition gone by way of some actually robust instances, together with their first (and as but solely) point-less season in 2021 and the battle (like lots of their rivals) to outlive the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I believe our first race in 2016, scoring that time on the debut [was a highlight],” Komatsu stated. “Actually coming to Australia, everyone was on their knees. Automotive construct was robust, pre-season testing was actually robust, then get to Australia, that is the primary time we’re really constructing two vehicles on the similar time, in order that’s an enormous strain.
“After which to attain that tremendous level, nice, after which happening to the following race, then we executed that tremendous three-stop race with Romain P5, that was unbelievable. Since then we have had wonderful P4, P5 in Austria, a pole place with Kevin in Interlagos – simply so many moments I look again and I am actually pleased with everybody within the staff.
