{"id":449635,"date":"2026-02-02T18:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/449635\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T18:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:52:11","slug":"haas-faces-formula-1s-biggest-reset-as-its-smallest-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/449635\/","title":{"rendered":"Haas Faces Formula 1\u2019s Biggest Reset as Its Smallest Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a dismal 2023 season, following which Guenther Steiner was let go, Haas has rebuilt itself in the thick of Formula 1\u2019s midfield.<\/p>\n

Under the astute Ayao Komatsu, who has been at Haas since its foundation, the team has become a recognizably more efficient outfit, responds faster to setbacks\u2014a remedy of a prior weakness\u2014and has finished seventh and eighth in the Constructors\u2019 Championship\u2014on both occasions within sight of sixth. <\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

In a 10-team championship\u2014now 11 amid Cadillac\u2019s arrival\u2014those results may not sound overwhelmingly impressive, but despite methodically expanding its headcount across the past two years, Haas remains Formula 1\u2019s smallest operation. <\/p>\n

Now it has been facing the challenge of the new-for-2026 regulations; while there is no carryover from the VF-25, the effective development of that car, and the lessons learned, can be applied into 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the biggest [changes] in 22 or 23 years of me being in Formula 1, I don\u2019t remember a change this big,\u201d Komatsu said. \u201cIt\u2019s hugely exciting, but at the same time it\u2019s very, very nerve-wracking. [But] look at what we\u2019ve achieved over the last couple of years\u2014we\u2019ve grown as a team. Not just in numbers, but in terms of mentality, mindset, and how we go racing. I feel like we\u2019re progressing our journey very, very well. It\u2019s different to have something already established and, let\u2019s say, adjusting it to new regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"formula<\/p>\n

Haas F1 Team<\/p>\n

Komatsu referenced that learning curve through 2025 as \u201cwe\u2019ve already shown from what happened in Melbourne last year and how we recovered from that,\u201d when Haas was shellshocked by its poor performance and worked around the clock to implement successful short- and medium-term remedies. \u201cWe haven\u2019t stopped improving since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haas enters 2026 with an unchanged driver lineup of Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon.<\/p>\n

Ferrari prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Bearman, after some eye-catching substitute appearances in 2024, had a difficult start to his first full-time campaign, but came on strongly across the second half of the year. Fourth in Mexico City was a standout, matching Haas\u2019 best-ever result, but just as impressive were drives to sixth in S\u00e3o Paulo and ninth in Singapore. <\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at his growth last year, it was very satisfying towards the end,\u201d Komatsu said. \u201cThis year the driver-engineer integration is more crucial, and he stepped up last year, and he needs to make another step. The way he\u2019s been working in the simulator, and how he was working with the guys last week [at Barcelona], not [just the] driving, understanding what\u2019s going on and giving feedback and trying it, he\u2019s starting in the right way. Ollie knows exactly what\u2019s expected of him, but again, he\u2019s still very, very young, but what I saw last week in Barcelona is definitely the best version of Ollie we can have. I\u2019m happy that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The more experienced Ocon had a stuttering campaign, scoring three points less than Bearman, amid struggles with some of the limitations of the VF-25, most prominently the brakes. A breakthrough only\u2014finally\u2014occurred at the finale in Abu Dhabi. It undoubtedly hindered him extracting the maximum from himself and the machinery underneath him, leading to hopes that 2026 can be a fresh start. <\/p>\n

\"f1Mark Sutton – Formula 1\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Haas F1 Team Principal Ayao Komatsu.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had very good talks over the winter, preparing, and we understand each other very well, he\u2019s totally clear what\u2019s expected of him and what he needs from the team, we cleared everything,\u201d Komatsu said. \u201cThe way he approached the Barcelona test was faultless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expanding on Ocon\u2019s difficult 2025 Komatsu was typically blunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the sporting results for sure nobody\u2019s satisfied with Esteban\u2019s sporting results last year,\u201d Komatsu said. \u201cHe\u2019s a teammate against a rookie, yes an amazing rookie, but he\u2019s got 10 years of F1 under his belt, a race winner, podium finisher, so we expected more from him. <\/p>\n

\u201cEsteban\u2019s potential is clear\u2026 that\u2019s the talent and capability he has, we have to harness that and use that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously not totally his fault, it\u2019s 50-50, sometimes as a team we couldn\u2019t give him a car he was comfortable, especially in qualifying, and at some circuits that got exaggerated more than others\u2014look at Baku\u2014we didn\u2019t expect Esteban\u2019s worst day to be so far off. There\u2019s not just one reason, each instance is different, there\u2019s no common underlying factor or golden bullet, it\u2019s just a process how we work together to get the bottom of it so much quicker and put things in place for the next race, that\u2019s the bit, all of us together, team and driver, didn\u2019t do it very well last year because I really felt we should have got on top of that quicker. In Abu Dhabi he was 0.4s off Ollie [in practice], Saturday, bang, he was on the pace. It\u2019s a few things that really triggers, let\u2019s say, a snowball effect and we\u2019ve got to get on top of those things quicker. Esteban\u2019s potential is clear, if you look at what he did Saturday, Sunday [in Abu Dhabi], that\u2019s the talent and capability he has, we have to harness that and use that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"f1Bryn Lennon – Formula 1\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman.<\/p>\n

Visually the most striking element of Haas\u2019 VF-26 is the greater branding from Toyota, with the team now known as TGR Haas F1 Team, as the relationship between the two parties strengthens. The mutual collaboration means Toyota can dip its toe back into Formula 1 in a cost-effective manner while Haas gains from Toyota\u2019s expertise, particularly technically, where its small size means it is at a disadvantage. Reacting quickly in 2026, amid the scale of the new regulations, will be a key necessity. A new simulator at its Banbury HQ is also expected to come online mid-season. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the medium- to long-term it\u2019s really exciting,\u201d Komatsu says. \u201cThey\u2019re not interested in branding, they don\u2019t need us to advertise their brand, everyone knows Toyota, it\u2019s mainly a technical collaboration and growing people together.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the technical capability Toyota can offer, we\u2019re dong the simulator project together, without set-up it wouldn\u2019t have been possible. If I had a better choice I would have started this six months or one year ago, but we\u2019re really working on it, physically installing a sim in Banbury, so mid-season once we have the sim physically installed in Banbury we can use it straight away, it means a lot to us and it\u2019s definitely not just a naming brand thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a dismal 2023 season, following which Guenther Steiner was let go, Haas has rebuilt itself in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,782,185188,784,578,576,577,1642,185187,82,184740],"class_list":{"0":"post-449635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-content-type-news","11":"tag-contentid-3edd39ab-462c-48c2-abaf-41fbe67e2200","12":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","13":"tag-f1","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-locale-us","17":"tag-shorttitle-haas-set-for-26-regulations-as-f1s-smallest-team","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-subsection-formula-one"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}