Ayao Komatsu has declared that Haas aren\u2019t \u201cin any rush\u201d to settle on their future driver line-up, with the Team Principal eager to concentrate more on supporting Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon in performing at their best.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a frustrating season for Haas<\/a> as their strong start to the year, which featured Bearman<\/a>\u2019s P5 finish at the Chinese Grand Prix, quickly faltered, leaving the team to tumble down the order as their midfield rivals out-developed them.<\/p>\n They\u2019re now on a run of six rounds without any points and are facing additional questions about their plans for 2027. While neither seat has been confirmed, it\u2019s understood that Bearman is more likely to remain with the squad than Ocon<\/a>, with options like Rafael Camara<\/a> and Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> waiting for an opportunity<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, Komatsu<\/a> was reluctant to give a definitive answer ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix<\/a>, where Haas ultimately suffered a double DNF. Before the race, he explained: \u201cWe\u2019re not in any rush. We\u2019re focused on our two drivers, Ollie and Esteban, trying to get the best out of them. They\u2019ve got the tough challenge, right?<\/p>\n \u201cYou know what they\u2019re capable of. You know, Ollie has shown it repeatedly. Esteban, when he is happy with the car, you know what he can do.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we need to really just focus on providing them with the best possible car, best set-up adaptation, and get the best out of them. And then both of our drivers are fully focused.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Bearman has scored 18 points to Ocon\u2019s three, he recently admitted that the standings<\/a> aren\u2019t a true reflection of their competition, referencing apparent \u201cinconsistency\u201d<\/a> between the parts on their cars.<\/p>\n Komatsu conceded that they\u2019ve struggled to adapt to the new regulations and the speed with which teams around them have delivered effective upgrades \u2013 compared to 2025, Haas have fallen significantly further behind the likes of Racing Bulls<\/a> and Alpine<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the biggest regulation change ever,\u201d the team boss explained. \u201cSo us being the smallest team, we expect that we\u2019re going to really be struggling to keep up with the other big boys in the development race.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started the season extremely well, much better than anyone can think of, and then from that moment I think that\u2019s the reality. With our constraints, we\u2019re trying to develop the car as fast as possible, but the other guys are putting performance on the car faster than us. That\u2019s the reality.<\/p>\n \u201cThen, to be fair, honestly, it\u2019s nothing against the guys in the team \u2013 they\u2019re doing a fantastic job, they\u2019re working together, and then for us to have a chance to keep up with the other guys, everything has to be perfect, right? Everything. In life, that\u2019s not something you can ask for all the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI really do think I need to provide them with a better environment, facilitate it, so that they can show what they\u2019re capable of. I\u2019m sure of that. But the good thing is those tough times show the character, right? And then there\u2019s no blame culture.<\/p>\n \u201cWe looked at the problem: what\u2019s the issue, where are we lacking downforce, why the drivability is not great, what are the drivers struggling with? We\u2019re all on the same page, trying to fix the issue, trying to put performance on the car. But of course, again, that takes time.<\/p>\n \u201cLots of things we\u2019re putting in place will take time for it to materialise, but we\u2019ve just got to believe in ourselves, the teamwork, support each other, and we\u2019ll get through it like we did the last two years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ayao Komatsu has declared that Haas aren\u2019t \u201cin any rush\u201d to settle on their future driver line-up, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-581954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}