Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu says the US outfit isn’t out of the woods yet regarding its well-chronicled tyre degradation issues based on Nico Hulkenberg’s struggles in F1’s Sprint event in China last time out.
Haas worked tireless over the winter to mitigate the chronic degradation complications that plagued its 2023 campaign.
In pre-season testing, the team focused on its long-run performance in a bid to improve the fundamental aerodynamic imbalance of its VF-24 design and the durability of its car’s rubber.
Early signs were positive, with Haas scoring three top-ten finishes in this year’s first four races, which encouraged Komatsu to declare that “we can race this year in the midfield”.
But in China, where Hulkenberg qualified 13th for the weekend’s Sprint event, the German driver consistently fell down the order mid-way through the 19-lap race as he battled his rapidly degrading rear tyres.
Hulkenberg felt that “a wrong turn on the set-up” was to blame for his demise. He nevertheless managed to salvage a point in Sunday’s Grand Prix.
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But speaking to Motorsport.com, Komatsu suggested that Haas’ car might still be facing a tyre predicament in race trim.
"I wouldn't say it's gone, gone" he said when queried on the status of his team’s tyre conundrum. "For instance, we expected certain things [in China], we experienced something different.
"So, you can look at Nico's sprint – it's not only the tyre problem, but a result of a few combined factors, [but] we killed Nico's tyre.
"So, I cannot say still [that] 100% we are completely over it. I think this circuit, with this temperature, and then these compounds exposed some new areas.
"But because we focused on that I think, [it's] something we can work on to improve to cover.
"[If] we come here again, we'll probably come up with slightly different configurations, which we haven't got at this minute."
"If you look at Kevin's [sprint] race – a solid race, finished in P10. But his pace wasn't great.”
Komatsu said that Hulkenberg’s struggles in Shanghai’s Sprint were not entirely centered around his tyres.
"The way Nico dropped back is not one factor – it's a combination of factors. But you can see how sensitive it is,” added the Japanese engineer.
"If you get into certain conditions, scenarios, if you don't have the margin to keep the tyres in a good state, that's what can happen.
"So then, learning from that, we need to then have a car – everything, set-up configuration, driving – to give ourselves a bit more margin so that if certain situations happen, the tyres are not gonna die [and] we're not completely out of it."
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