MoneyGram Haas F1 Team has announced a major change in its management. The American racing outfit, led by Guenther Steiner as Team Principal since it entered F1 in 2016, will now be led by Ayao Komatsu, Haas’ Director of Engineering since 2016. Guenther has vacated the position with immediate effect. The Italian will go down in history books as F1’s third longest-serving team principal, behind Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner and Mercedes-AMG Petronas’ Toto Wolff. He’ll also be remembered for his tenacious presence in Netflix’s Drive To Survive series.
Those familiar with the sport will know that taking on the mammoth challenge of leading a brand new F1 team from the ground up and making it competitive is not easy, to say the least. While Guenther’s spell can’t be labelled as successful, it featured a few highs – the team scored points on debut in Australia in 2016, a maiden pole position in Brazil last year and a top-five finish in the constructors’ championship in 2018. However, last year, the team finished last in the constructors’ championship which raised questions on Guenther’s leadership.
Ayao Komatsu
Komatsu started at Haas as Chief Race Engineer. With over 20 years of Formula 1 experience, both in engineering and management – the 47-year-old Japanese engineering graduate commenced his career in motorsport at British American Racing before a long tenure at Renault. He will now oversee all competition elements. As Team Principal, he will be responsible for the team’s overall strategy and on-track performance.
To strengthen team operations off-track and to support Komatsu, Haas also confirmed the appointment of a European-based Chief Operating Officer to manage all non-competition matters and departments, the role expected to be based at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Banbury facility.
Sharing his thoughts on the decision, Gene Haas, Team Owner at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team said, “I’d like to start by extending my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future. Moving forward as an organisation it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances. In appointing Ayao Komatsu as Team Principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.”