In the wake of a challenging 2023 season, where Haas finished bottom of the constructors’ championship, it parted ways with its long-serving boss Guenther Steiner over the winter.
His replacement Komatsu is currently undertaking a review of the Banbury-based team’s operations with the aim of turning things around to get it further up the grid.
And while Gene Haas’s recent outspoken remarks about the performance of the team raised some eyebrows, Komatsu believes that his comments were well justified.
“Gene at the moment, he wants to get off the back of the grid,” said Komatsu. “You saw and heard how unhappy Gene was. I mean, of course, who's going to be happy competing in last place? It is embarrassing. It really is embarrassing.
“So I think it's positive that Gene's unhappy where we are. If the people in the team think, 'Okay, we are last, and then we're not sure where we're going because Gene doesn't say anything’ then [they will think], is Gene happy just making up numbers being P10? That's clearly not the case.
“It's actually motivating for everyone here. Okay, Gene is serious, he wants to improve the team. So let's do it together.”
While team owner Haas does not attend every F1 race, he is known to take a hands-on approach when he visits, and pays particularly close attention to technical matters.
Plus, his direct approach of pushing the team to make improvements is something that Komatsu welcomes.
“He’s very enthusiastic,” explained Komatsu. “He may not necessarily understand the details of Formula 1 teams, but at least he gives me clear direction of what he wants out of the team, which is clear.
“And then how to achieve that, that is my job with all the other guys. I cannot do it myself. I don’t have any plans to do it myself. I need all the guys to be pulling together, but at least I know what he wants and he is pretty clear.”
Komatsu says that Gene Haas paying close attention to the goings on at his F1 team is a much better scenario than what happened at his previous Lotus/Renault team where there was little enthusiasm from the upper echelons.
“It’s good because he’s very engaged and very enthusiastic,” said Komatsu. “One of the differences I saw when I came here was in my previous team, which went through various owners, or certain owners, they weren’t interested at all. It was an investment for them.
“They didn’t care about the racing side. All they were interested in was doing some track days with an old F1 car. Honestly, they didn’t care.
“That was very disappointing, but one of the most refreshing things coming here in 2016 was the owner, Gene Haas, he was so passionate about it.
“I remember, I think it was winter testing when we had a certain car failure, he was in the garage looking at the part because he is interested in the hardware and the mechanical side of things.
“He was just so interested to understand and know what went wrong. I think that is good that this owner is passionate about what he is investing in.”
