“I’ll probably go tonight.” Ayao Komatsu glances at his watch as we sit down in the Haas hospitality suite at the Shanghai circuit. “There’s a new place about half an hour from the hotel. It’s a new climbing gym, apparently. My good friend is a climbing coach and he happens to be out here coaching local guys.”
For Haas’ Formula 1 team principal, climbing gyms around the world have been part of the routine for a few years now. Wherever he travels with the F1 circus, he always carries his chalk bag, harness and climbing shoes in his luggage - and he’s familiar with dozens of gyms worldwide, where people spend their free time scaling vertical walls.
