A new management does not help Haas' expectations for the coming season. Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenbrg will still be driving around like bottom plugs.
Haas has a new team manager in the 47-year-old Japanese Ayao Komatsu. But that doesn't make the team cars any better.
The new boss admits this in an interview with the Reuters news agency.
– I still think we will be at the back of the field, if not last, says Ayao Komatsu depressingly.
On Friday, Haas was the first Formula 1 team to present its 2024 racer. Or at least the colors on it. And even if it is only a 'dummy', Haas does not have high hopes.
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Komatsu emphasizes that he believes Haas is moving in the right direction. But he admits that the team has made mistakes. Especially under predecessor Gunther Steiner.
– The reason our races are not going to be fast enough in Bahrain is not the quality of the people we have here. That's because we started late and then stopped for two months to do the Austin update.
– Our concentration and focus is on working with VF-24, understanding the racer and then defining the right path to upgrade the car.
It has also been a long time since Haas has had an even season in Formula 1. In fact, we have to go all the way back to 2018 to find a season in which the team finished better than 8th in the Constructors' Championship.
Back then it was 5th place with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean in the cars. Internally among the choirs, Magnussen drew the longest straw and finished in 9th place overall in the WC standings.
