Haas Finds Reasons For Optimism After Pre-Season Test In Bahrain

Tuesday, 27 February 2024 at 01:30

The team principal of Haas, Ayao Komatsu, discussed where his team stands after the three-day pre-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit.

The Haas F1 team has been setting very low expectations since the beginning of 2024. The team has had a tough end to the previous season, and the new team, Ayao Komatsu, emphasized multiple times his team is not where they want to be.

After the launch of their 2024 challenger, VF-24, the Japanese team principal stated Haas will start the 2024 season towards the back of the grid, if not in the last place.

Consequently, there are currently almost zero expectations of the team to perform, and that is, in a way, useful because now, they can only surprise positively.

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Moreover, the team principal seemed quite upbeat after the last three days of testing, so it seems not all is lost for the American team. Komatsu told the media in Bahrain:

"We completed our first qualifying sim, looking at the low-fuel car balance. Then, we completed two race simulations – one with Kevin and one with Nico. We successfully achieved all of this despite the track issues today. It's been a very, very good day, basically."

On the one hand, the team principal still says his team has a lot of work to do before reaching the spot in the Championship where they want to be. On the other hand, he asserted the car seemed pretty good.

"Our race simulations show that yes, we’ve got lots more work to do, but at the same time, we’ve got a base car that we can actually race."

Haas was perhaps the team that struggled with tire degradation the most throughout 2023. Consequently, their main objective was to work on this aspect, and Haas focused on long runs instead of qualifying simulations. The 47-year-old added:

"Considering the qualifying performance. We haven’t worked on it at all. Today was our first time looking at it, but again, it was decent. We’ve had a very good start to the season with all this preparation in testing."