'Like building a new team': How Haas are re-building for the future

The opening quarter of the 2021 season has witnessed its fair share of excitement, with six different constructors finishing on the podium in as many races. However, American outfit Haas has failed to make much of an impact, having been relegated among the bottom spots. This is certainly a shock for the fans as well as members of the team, considering the illustrious history of the outfit as a whole. Owner Gene Haas and Team Principal Guenther Steiner took the decision of not developing this year’s VF-21, with the COVID-19 pandemic leaving all the teams in a spot of bother. There were questions over whether Haas would look to remain in the sport, having witnessed the painful decline of his team. The team which finished fifth in the 2018 campaign, had regressed to an unimaginable extent. Finances had dried up, with parts enjoying great potential not put into production because of the restrictions on expenditure.

Racers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin are racing with a car that has not been modified to a major extent over two years, with driver Romain Grosjean going to the extent of calling it a ‘donkey’. However, things are changing following Haas’ decision to commit to the sport for the next five years. Times are changing with the team looking to developing a new generation of the car, that will be introduced next season.

“Company was in a difficult situation”

One of the prime factors that Haas is looking to improve upon is with regard to the pit stops.

“We knew that this year would be a tough year, as we had to stop our programme last year because of the pandemic and because the company was in quite a difficult situation. That meant the starting point to work on this year’s car was so late,” said Chief Race Engineer Ayao Komatsu as quoted by Formula 1.

“It’s not like we had a competitive car last year, so the thinking was – OK , we have a big regulation change for 22. If we try to develop this year’s car, OK we can improve performance but can we justify the impact on ’22? Simply no’. So we decided to cut our losses. We know this year will be a transition year, we have got to deal with what we have got, and pump everything into next year’s car,” he added.

At the same time, Komatsu is under no misconception with regard to the impact it will have on overall proceedings, considering every other team will be pushing to make a big jump.

“We are still behind in some aspects for next year and that is even when we are focusing 100% on next year’s car. Will it put us straight back into the midfield or not? I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. We are starting from a compromised position,” he said.

“It’s very tough”

The Chief Race Engineer stated that making a transformation would certainly not be easy, terming the “wrong direction with development” in 2019 as something they were paying for.

“It’s very tough. As a new team, in 2016 and 2017, we made steady progress and in 2018 we finished P5 in the championship. So everyone thought we could keep improving. Then we had 2019, when we went in the wrong direction with development and we are really paying for that,” he said.

“We knew this year would be tough, but I try to say to everyone, ‘what can we do better?’ Each weekend, we need to look at something we can take the positives out of it. Last year, our pit stops weren’t very good – but that is something we can focus on improving without substantial money. We can focus on working with two new drivers, trying to get best out of them, trying to make them understand what the car behaviour is like, and trying to improve where we can,” added Komatsu.

Haas has further taken a bold move by switching the experienced driver line-up of Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, with an all-new pairing that has zero races under their belt. Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher have been handed the limelight, in comparison to a duo with 298 races between them. The involvement of Schumacher has certainly had its fair share of advantages, with sponsors looking to sign agreements because of the illustrious name.

“It’s been challenging, but in a good way. For both of them, in every single weekend there is something they can learn. If you have a driver who has regularly been on podium, they expect the car to be decent. Having this car would be very frustrating,” said Komatsu.

“Of course Mick and Nikita would love a better car, but that’s not the end of the world right now. They are just focusing on getting the best out of the package. The pressure is off for them as they are not in the limelight, not fighting for points or podiums. They can focus on improving themselves, learning the car, learning how to run a session, looking at data and working engineers,” he added.

While there will certainly be a build-up of pressure as Gene Haas demands a return on investment, Komatsu is confident that the team will be able to reach its goals ultimately.

“We have got capable people, we haven’t been able to use them in the right way. We haven’t been able to provide them with the right tools. All new revenues will go into that, to re-establish the team. I would like to walk before we can run. We know what we would like to do. We are not short of ideas, it’s just a matter of prioritisation and putting the resource in the right place. We are excited. We are not dreaming we can suddenly put ourselves back into the middle of the midfield. But in terms of everything going on in the factory preparing for next year, it’s very exciting,” he concluded.