Haas was hoping to build on Wednesday on the momentum it showed on the opening day of running in Barcelona.
Instead, the American team was forced into a familiar pre-season balancing act – weighing genuine progress against the frustration of reliability interruptions.
Oliver Bearman was back behind the wheel of the new VF-26 for Haas’ second permitted day of running, but what should have been a straightforward continuation of learning was twice disrupted by technical issues, one of which team principal Ayao Komatsu admitted was cause for deeper concern.
Despite the setbacks, Komatsu was quick to stress that Haas had already taken a meaningful step forward compared to its opening appearance on Monday.
The team arrived on Wednesday confident that a raft of earlier issues had been addressed, and the early signs were encouraging.
“We’d sorted out so many issues from Monday, so when we were running on track today, I could see a huge step forward compared to day one – that’s a big positive for us,” Komatsu explained in a statement shared by the team.
Oliver Bearman and Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu
That optimism, however, was short-lived. Bearman’s programme was interrupted in both halves of the day, with Haas forced into unplanned garage time as reliability once again reared its head.
“Unfortunately, in both the morning and afternoon sessions, we had two reliability issues.”
The first problem struck during the morning running but proved manageable, allowing Haas to regroup and get the car back on track after the lunch break. The second interruption, however, was more significant – and far more troubling.
A More Serious Setback — But Early Enough to Fix
While the closed nature of the Barcelona shakedown limits what teams can reveal, Komatsu did not hide his concern about the later issue, even as he sought to put it into a wider pre-season context.
“I’m not worried about the one we had this morning, the one in the afternoon was a bit more serious and it’s obviously something we’re looking into and analysing exactly what happened – and of course, how to solve it,” Komatsu added.
“We’ll aim to get on top of it as quickly as possible, but at least it's happened relatively early in our overall pre-season programme.”
That timing may prove crucial. With regulation changes reshaping the technical landscape, Haas – like the rest of the field – is prioritising understanding and durability over headline lap times.
Catching faults now, rather than during official testing or early races, offers the team valuable breathing room.
Komatsu also pointed to signs of improvement beyond the raw performance of the VF-26, suggesting the team’s execution had sharpened since its first outing.
Encouraging Feedback from the Cockpit
Bearman, making his first appearance in Barcelona after Esteban Ocon handled driving duties on Monday, echoed that sense of cautious optimism.
For the young Briton, Wednesday represented his first real opportunity to explore the car’s limits in dry conditions.
“It was great to get back into the car,” Bearman said. “We’d obviously had a bit of running at Fiorano at the weekend where we managed to do the maximum 200km, but today was my first experience of the car in the dry.
“That meant it was the first time I was able to push it on its limits, at least for what they were for the set-up being run today.
“The car definitely felt powerful with the full battery power, the amount of harvesting we had to do was not too bad. You can definitely feel the car is a bit more agile and more nimble with the extra weight loss from the previous regulations.
“I’m excited to see the car go through its paces more.”
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Haas was absent from the circuit on Thursday morning, a strong indication that the team has chosen to pause running while it analyses Wednesday’s issues in detail.
All signs now point to Friday marking the conclusion of its Barcelona programme – with reliability firmly at the top of the to-do list before the next phase of pre-season begins.
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