Haas F1 Team owner Gene Haas says that the appointment of Ayao Komatsu as the new team principal is a demonstration of his commitment to the team, and his intention to have a greater involvement in its operations moving forward.
Formerly the squad's director of engineering, the 47-year-old Komatsu will take over the role with immediate effect after Haas decided against renewing Guenther Steiner's contract after eight years of the Italian in charge.
Haas had the option of looking at some significant free agents in F1 including Mattia Binotto, Otmar Szafnauer and Jost Capito but ultimately decided to turn to someone who had been with the team from the start.
“We looked from within, at who had most experience,” Haas explained in an exclusive video call with Formula1.com's Lawrence Barretto this week. “Ayao has been with the team since day one, he knows the ins and outs of it.
"Ayao is very technical," Haas added. "He looks at things based on statistics – this is what we’re doing bad, where can we do better," rather than Steiner's people-based approach.
"We really do need a different approach, because we weren’t really doing that well. It all comes down to eight years in [and we are still] dead last. Nothing more I can say on that.
"It’s better to take people you know," Haas replied when asked if he had considered recruiting one of the F1 big hitters currently without a job. "Even if they are not the perfect fit, at least you know what you’re going to get.
“Bringing people in from the outside, it takes them time to learn, six months to a year, and a lot of time you don’t even like them!" he added.
"I really like to have people that I know, who understand the day-to-day operations, understand the people, [rather] than bringing in a stranger who is going to stir everything up and create a mess.
"My biggest concern is when we go to Bahrain [for testing next mont], we need to show up with a car that is ready to go. Maybe having more of a managerial-type and engineering approach, we’ll see if that has benefits."
Having kept to the sidelines up to know and letting Steiner lead the team on the ground, Haas says that he will now take a more active role in the F1 operation in future.
And Haas is adamant that he has no intention of selling the team to other companies like Andretti Global eager to make it onto the F1 grid.
“I didn’t get into F1 to sell, I did it because I wanted to race," he insisted. "We’re not here to cash out, we want to race and be competitive.
“Surviving is one of the characteristics of getting better. As long as you can survive, you always have another year to prove your worthiness.
“We survived for eight years, and we’re not in a situation where we are going to go out of business, but I certainly want to be able to survive for the next ten years.
"This is a big change. Losing Guenther is going to cause the team to have to focus on other aspects. We will hopefully come out better for it.”
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