In another world, Ayao Komatsu would be the one asking the questions. “I actually wanted to be an investigative journalist,” the Haas F1 team principal reveals. “I wanted to do journalism that the police and the media wouldn’t touch. My own investigations, my own evidence, to get to the truth.
“But Formula 1 then became everything. A friend told me I had to do maths and physics and I thought ‘Oh s***.’ I wasn’t a scientific guy. I looked at engineers and wished I had their brains. But it didn’t matter how much time I needed to do in the classroom… I was going to make it to Formula 1.”
A wise choice. After two decades in the sport, Komatsu is now a member of the sport’s infamous “piranha club”, the term used to categorise the group of F1 team bosses. Except, there are no shark-like tendencies from the Japanese engineer; more a presence of low-key rationality.
Komatsu took over from Guenther Steiner two years ago, after a 2023 campaign of underperformance. Team owner Gene Haas prioritised results over soundbites but, interestingly, promoted the team’s trackside engineering director. Before that, Komatsu was best-known to wider F1 fans as Steiner’s right-hand man on Netflix’s Drive to Survive, smiling apprehensively and the gentle voice of reason amid the Italian-American’s vociferous outbursts.
“I don’t watch Drive to Survive,” Komatsu, 50, tells The Independent. “I’ve always needed to make so many decisions on the spot. I never want to be thinking about how I’m going to be perceived.
“If I have an awareness of how I’m being portrayed on TV, I wouldn’t be confident I could completely blank that out.” Again, a voice of reason.
An ambition formed in his teenage years, Komatsu admitted his calling was always “international”, beyond the bright lights of then the world’s most populous city. Growing up in Tokyo, it was actually motorbikes and MotoGP which first intrigued a 13-year-old Komatsu. Two memorable F1 races in Suzuka in 1989 and 1990, involving title-deciding crashes between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, changed all that.
“I was desperate to see the world outside of Japan and work with people from all over,” he says. “The great thing about motor racing is that the feedback is really good. You find out straight away, via times, whether you’re good or bad.
“But then it gives opportunities for continuous improvement and feedback. I love that aspect of my job.”
His aspirations landed him on an automotive engineering course at Loughborough University where, away from textbooks, he featured as a scrum-half for Old Wheatleyan’s RFC and Loughborough RFC. Most of his teammates were Coventry City fans and so, then, a love for all things sky blue commenced.
“My favourite car was actually Adrian Newey’s bright blue Leyton House from 1990,” he says. “But at university, I just loved the new environment. Tokyo is an international city, but is still a very conservative society. I loved the melting pot of Loughborough, with so many different cultures. Rugby was so important for my integration into life in the UK.”
He has never left. Starting as a tyre engineer at British American Racing in 2003, Komatsu has doggedly worked his way up the chain, while maintaining a base around the UK’s ‘Motorsport Valley’ between Oxfordshire and the Midlands. He worked with Romain Grosjean at Lotus as the Frenchman’s race engineer before following the driver to Haas for the team’s inception in 2016.
This season represents his 11th at Haas – and third in the top job. “I’m so appreciative of the opportunities I’ve had, but you cannot do it by yourself. My dad passed away when I was 18, so he hasn’t seen any of this. But I’m grateful he gave me the determination I needed to apply myself.
“When I told my dad I wanted to work in Formula 1, he didn’t even have a driving licence. Motorsport and cars were not in our life. But I’m grateful to my parents for letting me pursue what I wanted to do and they let me go.”
Two races in, Komatsu is optimistic about the new season and, going into this home race weekend, Haas are fourth in the world championship, above Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. British starlet Ollie Bearman has shone, in particular.
“Ollie has no ceiling,” Komatsu says of the Chelmsford-born driver. “There is no doubt about his speed. His consistency is improving and he’s such an honest guy. We can have tough conversations without getting personal.”
Perhaps a move to Ferrari is in the future offing for Bearman but, for Komatsu, you can sense his genuine satisfaction at just being in and amongst the globetrotting circus itself. A rare chink of modesty, in a world fuelled by egos and bravado.
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