Haas F1 part ways with Guenther Steiner

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team have announced that Guenther Steiner has left his role as Team Principal with immediate effect. He has been replaced by Ayao Komatsu.  

Komatsu, who has been with the American F1 team since 2016, started his Haas chapter as their Chief Race Engineer. Now, as their Team Principal, Komatsu will take care of the team’s “overall strategy, and ultimately on-track performance, with a brief to maximise the team’s potential through employee empowerment and structural process and efficiency.”

Haas have also announced that they will be hiring a “European-based Chief Operating Officer” to look after all non-competition matters and departments. 

Gene Haas, Team Owner, MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, commented:

“I’d like to start by extending my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future. Moving forward as an organisation it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances. In appointing Ayao Komatsu as Team Principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.

“We have had some successes, but we need to be consistent in delivering results that help us reach our wider goals as an organisation. We need to be efficient with the resources we have but improving our design and engineering capability is key to our success as a team. I’m looking forward to working with Ayao and fundamentally ensuring that we maximise our potential – this truly reflects my desire to compete properly in Formula 1.“

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal, MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, said:

“I’m naturally very excited to have the opportunity to be Team Principal at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team. Having been with the team since its track-debut back in 2016 I’m obviously passionately invested in its success in Formula 1. I’m looking forward to leading our program and the various competitive operations internally to ensure we can build a structure that produces improved on-track performances.

“We are a performance-based business. We obviously haven’t been competitive enough recently which has been a source of frustration for us all. We have amazing support from Gene and our various partners, and we want to mirror their enthusiasm with an improved on-track product. We have a great team of people across Kannapolis, Banbury and Maranello and together I know we can achieve the kind of results we’re capable of.“