Komatsu, who replaced Guenther Steiner as Haas team principal at the beginning of the year, said the team lacked faith in its ability to improve their car by upgrading it during the season.
“One of the main issues we had in previous years was that Haas was not able to develop the car in-season,” he told The Fast and the Curious. “We weren’t able to put upgrades on the car that works.”
“And then there were certain people saying previously that, well, an upgrade is a waste of time, it never works, we shouldn’t do it. But to me it’s the opposite. When the upgrade doesn’t work, you’ve got to really find out why your upgrade doesn’t work. It’s got to work.”
Teams can’t expect to progress in F1 if they don’t upgrade their cars during the year, said Komatsu. “To be competitive in Formula 1 you have to be able to develop the car in-season, there’s no doubt. And then if it wasn’t working, you’ve got to get to the bottom of why it didn’t work.”
He said the team has been able to address the problem by restructuring its technical division. “The two drivers are the ones telling you what the issues of the car is. So really you’ve got to understand that, then you’ve got to communicate that well to the guys back home.”
“In our case, the guys in Italy, who’s basically designing the car, designers and aerodynamicists. So that closed loop communication working together was the key. So that required a change of structures and moving certain people who I believed weren’t in the right roles and then put the right people in the right place, having a structure that promotes that closed loop communication.”
https://www.racefans.net/2024/11/21/rac ... p-21-11-7/
You may recall how there has been talk of internal divisions between the track team and the factory in AM... Maybe Aston could learn something from what Komatsu is saying here. Better communication and driver feedback being key (rather than data that doesn't exist in reality)
On communication: what if having expanded the operation so much in such a short time, both in terms of staff and infrastructure, has broken down the feeling of a close-knit team that existed previously?
