Haas, new team principal Ayao Komatsu introduces himself

Haas, new team principal Ayao Komatsu introduces himself

Here are the first words to the media from Haas’ new team principal, Japanese Ayao Koatsu, who took over from Guenther Steiner of Alto Adige, who was fired by the U.S. team. The quotes are reported by formulapassion.co.uk.

“Of course, I am not trying to be Steiner! È a very different person. We got along, honestly, very, very well. We respect each other, we respect our positions and our roles during work and also outside work. We often went to dinner during race weekends, again not to talk about work, but because we got along very well. But I am not here to replace Steiner as a character“.

“Günther è very different, has very different strengths and weaknesses from mine. I am not trying to be somebody else and Gene knows that; if Gene had wanted a replacement for Steiner, he would have appointed somebody else. So I understand that Gene wants something different and I will tryò to be the best version of myself rather than trying to be somebody else“.

“I am really overwhelmed by the positive support I è been given. Everybody has been very enthusiastic and supportive, so I’m really happy about what we can improve with the people we have here.I know there are a lot of talented, high-quality kids here, I really wanted to provide them with the necessary environment and context for them to be able to do their best. So I am really excited“.

Born in Tokyo, Komatsu will be 48 years old next Jan. 28. A motor engineering graduate from Britain, he began working in F1 at BAR as a tire engineer. In 2006 he moved to Renault in the test team, and later became track engineer to Nelsinho Piquet, Vitaly Petrov and Romain Grosjean, whom he followed in 2016 to the newly formed Haas team, where he became director of track engineers, a role he also held at Lotus, the former Renault team, the year before. Finally, a week ago, the appointment as Haas team principal.