Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has been relieved of his duties with immediate effect and replaced by Ayao Komatsu, the US outfit’s director of engineering.
The unexpected news was announced by Haas on Wednesday afternoon and brings to an end Steiner’s eight-year tenure with the team, having put the outfit on its rails in F1 in 2016.
The Italian’s contract with Haas was up for renewal, but team owner Gene Haas opted to part ways with its team principal in the wake of a disappointing 2023 season which saw the team finish tenth and last in F1’s Constructors’ standings.
Steiner’s exit also follows the departure from Haas, announced earlier in the day, of technical director Simona Resta who was on loan from Ferrari since 2021.
“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,” commented Gene Haas.
“Moving forward as an organization 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 organization,” added Haas.
“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 maximize our potential – this truly reflects my desire to compete properly in Formula 1.”
As a Haas team member since the outfit’s F1 debut in 2016, Komatsu says that he is “passionately invested” in Haas’ success.
“I’m naturally very excited to have the opportunity to be Team Principal at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team,” stated the Japanese engineer.
“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,” Komatsu continued. “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.”
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