Ayao Komatsu, new manager of the Hass team replacing Guenther Steiner

The Italian Guenther Steiner He is no longer the team director of Haas, an American Formula 1 team, and his place has been taken by Japanese Ayao Komatsu, who since 2016 has held the position of engineering director.

“With more than 20 years of Formula 1 experience, both in engineering and management, the 47-year-old Japanese engineer began his motorsport career at British American Racing before a long stint at Renault. Komatsu will now oversee all element of business competition as a team manager,” Haas said in a statement.

“Komatsu will assume responsibility for the team’s overall strategy and, ultimately, on-track performance, with the goal of maximizing the team’s potential through employee empowerment and process and structural efficiency,” the text added.

For his part, Ayao Komatsu is “very excited” for the opportunity within a team he joined in 2016 with the help of French driver Romain Grosjean, where he was his track engineer at Lotus.

“Having been with the Haas team since its track debut in 2016, I have been involved in its success in Formula 1. I look forward to leading our program and various competitive operations to ensure we develop a structure that produces more great performances on the track,” added Komatsu.

The Japanese engineer took over the role of Guenther Steiner who led the project since its creation in 2014 in a team owned by American businessman and engineer Gene Haas.

“I would like to express my gratitude to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and wish him the best for the future. Moving forward as an organization, it is clear that we need to improve our performance on the track. By appointing with Ayao Komatsu as team director, we have engineering at the center of our management,” commented the manager.