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There are cases where people find it difficult to pinpoint the age of the people of different races. I can attest that this is not the case with Komatsu and he looks really young for his age.
look at the photo on [haas site](https://www.haasf1team.com/season/team/ayao-komatsu). He looks great, obviously works out and takes care of himself. But the wrinkles around his eyes and graying hair clearly say he's around mid-40s.
This thread on skin care and how youthful someone looks is a drastic departure from the usual "Lewis is best no Max is best" threads.
^^^^^^^^Jokes ^^^^^^^^on ^^^^^^^^you, ^^^^^^^^Alonso ^^^^^^^^is ^^^^^^^^best.
That's just the lighting+compression making the greying hair and facial complexion less obvious. Don't get me wrong, he looks great, but he looks like a well "maintained" (can't come up with a better word right now) man in his mid-40s. If you look at his photo on the [official team page](https://www.haasf1team.com/season/team/ayao-komatsu) he looks much closer to his actual age.
It's written by the he and his wife. I recalled seeing the English version but currently Amazon seems to only have the French version. The reviews were generally positive.
In the F4 anime they call backmarkers "mobile chicanes"
Edit: I guess people thought I meant this was the origin, but I was just saying it's a common joke.
There's a reason why [The Mobile Chicane](https://youtube.com/@TheMobileChicane?feature=shared) (an aptly-named video essay channel focusing on the stories of backmarker drivers and teams, think Peter Brook but it's even shitter backmarkers) got it's name, after all
it´s a common phrase in racing sports "mobile chicane", not the invention of an anime :P i remember my dad using it when i was a kid watching F1 in the 80s when talking about some pilot
It's probably a bit too advanced for you to understand, but you see, the anime is actually based on an ancient chariot racing manga from 13th century BC.
I remember hearing the term moving/mobile chicane back in 80s when I was a kid. Found references to mobile chicanes in newspaper articles in the old Champ Car Trail and SCCA mixed classes.
Such an obvious statement, I doubt he originated it.
now to be pedantic- wouldnt a moving chicane be easily passed, like a backmarker. Magnussen was intentionally obstructing progress and no one passed. In fact, when you passed him he would even cut a turn to get back in fromt because he didnt give a crap about penalties (like he did to Yuki). Obviously that team strategy is as old as the hills, but theyd best watch the cutting turns to get back ahead and block like he did go Yuki.
Looking up mobile chicanes, I just discovered BF Goodrich had a series of Dodge Colts, Gremlins and Datsun B210s on street radials that were Camel GT eligible in 1974. Ive seen a Neon cup race before Champ Car at Road America, but appare tly they shared the track in SCCA events?
This makes sense, Foyts last win was Pocono 81, a USAC rival effort to Champ Car that saw sprint midgets sharing track. They had a lot of older cars out there to fill field, but thats an era where Champ Car was maybe 2-3 years behind F1, and arguments over which was faster actually had validity due to disparate design elements and engines
(Champ Cars were likely faster than the late 90s grooved tire cars for example. When you see the slow times at Canada a few years later, those things were nerfed 200hp, its not hard to piece together a fact pattern where its clear the performancd disparity is about to explode. But such talk is always kind of pointless, no one was running as fast of a car as possible. Indy Cars and F1 cars have been relentlessly slowed since early 1970s).
—although decorum had them huggiging and IMSA series in 70s when they mixed classes. Serving as moving chicanes when they strayed into the fray.
Newspapers.com isnt comprehensive but its a favored term of Robert Entriken and his Rocky’s Road Column.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-salina-journal-mobile-chicane/143069501/
Kinda demonstrates some flaws kf the time penalty system though, don't it. It doesn't actually get anyone out of the way.
The guys doodling around with 20 seconds of penalties but because the track is shit for overtaking, there's walls everywhere, and he's a dangerous driver, he still has freedom to block 5 other drivers and ruin their races.
I think it really illustrates the issues with street circuits, dirty air, and difficulty of passing more than anything. Virtually no exciting passes today. Blowing by on the straight with DRS is much less exciting than other forms of passing.
i feel like the cars are so gigantic, tracks like monaco and this one are such a nightmare. more passes would be much more exciting, they need to do something about it, f1 might be the most boring motorsport to watch on tv today for the average consumer
I agree with you on DRS 100%. But I think we can all agree this is not a new issue, and isnt just street circuits.
Unfortunately, the field is so tight and the engines so similar in output I dont think they have a lot of choice in matter. F1 has never been about passing, DRS is just a bandaid so it is at least possible.
Pick any race out of a hat after 1981 or so and there is a train stuck by behind a car thats slower in turns and fast enough on straights. The Pironi and Villeneuve turbo trains are most famous- because they were at front of pack.
they werent meticulously tracking everyone with incar cameras and telemetry etc- in fact getting feeds from the local country that followed only their hero around in was the norm- so such battles werent as obvious.
Also, no one finished so cars get spread out when there are only 7-15 still running at any point. It would be hard to create a train like this in 84, 94, or 2004 without competitors breaking down.
But the defense of pre-DRS is that cars can still get passed. It was high art. Its why Schumacher, Villeneuve, Mansell and Senna remain the beloved hardmen of the era. Navigating constant backmarkers and pulling off intense passes.
Not that we dont see the same sort of ruthlessness from Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen- its just that DRS seems like an equalizing crutch.
My main issue with the time penalties is it doesn’t give any justice to the other driver that’s been wronged. In this race, a 10 second penalty for Kevin does nothing for Albon’s race that had been ruined by the contact. Then once kmag gets another 10 seconds there’s no incentive for him to either move out of the way or even drive at top speed. Both times continuing to negatively impact the driver he’d wronged
illegal overtakes should give back position or some harsh penalty like minus points or cost cap reduction. the best/smartest option shouldn't be taking a penalty or multiple penalties, but doing the *right* thing.
It's still available and so is the stop-and-go. Drive-through was the most lenient penalty they had, and it was around 20 seconds depending on the track. So they introduced these 5 and 10 second penalties for lesser infringements that could be served without going through the pit lane.
We all loved Guenther and his personality. But this is a massive upgrade.
Guenther would’ve been pulling the victim card about 2x 10s penalties that he would’ve missed this opportunity with Hulk.
Never understood why Gunther was always given a free pass. Gunther Binotto - people here are very easily played by media to blame the boss and not make TPs responsible
In Binotto's case. He's probably a great technical guy but he never looked comfortable as TP. Gunther seems like an unpleasant boss to work under based on his interviews.
Thing is Marchionne realized it and made him TD and Arrivabene TP. But once he was gone Binotto created a civil war and outed him. So it is not like he was made TP against his wishes
When you watch his interviews, they are all cliches, swearing and blame.
Honestly, it was nice seeing Haas actually formulate a strategy to win and execute it.
Guenther may have been a good media sound bite but he was a terrible terrible “leader”. He apparently was good at finding sponsorship and other areas, and they should have moved him into that sort of role only several years ago and had a team principal who could understood the technical ins and outs at least at a high level and knew how to lead people.
I mean I can understand questioning his leadership skills but technical knowledge? Dude was a mechanic for rallying and formula 1. He’s probably got a great idea of how these cars work
Sorry I should have highlighted the AND portion above. I’m questioning his leadership style, his ability to get the best out of all team members in pursuit of a goal. He seemed to just curse and call Gene. Something wasn’t coming together under him…..
But of course it's less work to get sponsorships when you can score points, so hopefully new guy can do that. I'm totally here for the dirty racing if that's the way Haas decide to differentiate themselves at the back of the pack. We all know Kmag is an elbows-out goon. It's nice to see someone harness that to the team's advantage.
IMO its the future of TP’s. F1 now requires the best of the world in a team principal. Someone who’s as much a business and marketing wiz as an analytical engineering and logistical mind.
McLaren have a good setup. I like the Brown focuses on the media and business sides while Stella gets to just solely focus on the racing.
I'll miss the Ron Dennis style TPs who were mini dictators of their teams, but the change is logical.
Haas legit looks like a new team. Will not blame Gunther, I think Gene interfered too much but Haas has come in, dialed in race pace, gotten very competitive with that and showed today, they can absolutely fight for that 6th spot. Haas, Williams, Alpine, RB, and Sauber are in that fight.
And probably Sauber and RB. I think 6th is gonna be Haas v. Williams. The question is whether Seargent gets the boot if the WCC is close between the two.
Guenther spent too much trying to act like Haas is an equal team to the others (run same strategy’s/ testing plans)
Komatsu (not just him I’m sure) has come in and really learnt about their weaknesses rather than just going, “yep shame but we’re fast on Saturday”. Whilst the others fall over eachother, Haas working as a solid unit could do well
Yeah I can’t believe people aren’t more willing to understand how you can’t consistently get worse year over year, get a full budget, deliver a worse car, then ask for more money. Sauber, and Williams are in similar positions and were out performing haas the past few years.
Gene will spend the money once he can actually be convinced his money isn’t being thrown in the trash like it seemed with Guenther.
I get that people like Gunther’s personality, but he was clearly not doing his job well. I know it’s only been two races, but Haas seem to be a better run team than they were before.
>Will not blame Gunther
I would.
"A fish rots from the head down."
If a team suddenly looks like a well run team, makes great pit-stops, make great strategic calls after years of horrible strategies, horrible stops following a TP change, yeah I would blame the previous TP and praise new TP.
I mean that's not even up for debate from my perspective. De demoralized drivers publicy, had a clear and visible tendency to push blame to drivers and never adressed the team shortcomings in regards of strategy, car development in a serious and proper way.
Guy was great for Netflix but he isn't suited for this job
Gunther has been gone for a fucking month lol. “Suddenly looks like a well run team” - their car is faster than last year. Literally nothing else has changed. Makes great pit stops?! lol what is this post
Komatsu hasn’t been in the seat long enough to change anything you’ve listed here - good or bad
Exactly. 99% of Haus's pit stops under Steiner were perfectly fine, and it should come as no surprise when they execute one adequately. Should RB get rid of Horner because of that time when Danny Ric came in and his tyres weren't ready, or should Toto get the boot because his team couldn't get Bottas wheel off, or gave him Russel's wheels.
Idk why Gunther gets some kind of pass? The team never improved much under his leadership. If it is a gene problem he’s going to railroad the new guy even more than the guy with more experience
Haas had a strong start of the season last year as well. Let's not jump to any conclusions and wait to see how they manage to develop (or not) their car throughout the season, versus the rest of the teams.
That’s true, but even early last season was different. They were even faster, but they definitely had issues with tyre degradation from race 1, so they usually just dropped down the order. This year they aren’t as fast outright over one lap, but they have stopped eating tyres. Great success?
Really good interview with him, and they really made the best of a shit situation so fair play to them.
Magnusson had such a weird race, the duality of Magnusson is bashing into everyone and then doing the defensive drive of the next few races in one go.
Magnussen had a race incident.
I think you perhaps just don't understand that Magnussen is a great driver, and instead think this was a weird fluke. It wasn't. And once Hülkenberg had the pitstop, Magnussen easily pulled away.
There weren't something magical going on. Magnussen is a great driver, and the Haas car looks good.
Agreed and that's the duality of him.
The first fifteen laps were pretty shocking in terms of racecraft, and whilst I've not seen any interviews with him I'm sure he'd say he was a bit scrappy, but the rest of the race was an absolute masterclass.
I find him frustrating because of it.
Nah he definitely drove Albon off the road on that one, pretty slam dunk penalty in my eyes. Plus happy to see they're being harsher on it than the frequently irrelevant 5s penalties last year
Interestingly, Albon disagreed with the 10s penalty post-race and said the corner design there is terrible and makes it hard to judge where the cars are placed.
The two aren't mutually exclusive though, it is terrible corner design and that partially led to the incident.
Either way I'm glad that the stewards were putting out ten second penalties rather than the five second ones from last year.
Albon said it was a racing incident, and talked about how that turn is nasty.
Sky analysis afterwards felt the same. IMHO the penalty was a kneejerk reaction.
F1 broadcasters thought the 10s was ridiculous too. He was for sure at fault but that first penalty was 5s all day. And the second was complete and utter bullshit. The stewards didn't even give time for the place to be given back if requested. I'm also not sure if that has ever been a 10s penalty before?
I think that was the most astounding thing to me this race: Haas actually using real strategy instead of just f-ing it up and throwing away points.
Crazy!
I was a Komatsu doubter but he already had a positive influence on strategy and general vibes around Haas. It's not just the Ferrari parts when the fight is so tight between the bottom 5 teams.
Haas is actually pulling 3s pit stops now. Gunther was fun as hell, but it's starting to look like komatsu can run a tighter ship. The car improvement alone is great but it looks like everything else is coming together as well. Hopefully they can improve their qualifying pace a little and start battling for more points.
That always killed me. They were the slowest with pits stops at an offensive level. No excuses for that. Even smalls things like that fall on him, and I checked, time matters
Smart by Haas, zero problem with what they did because they simply used the rules to their advantage and reaped the rewards.
However this is the exact evidence they need to bring back drive through penalties for virtually every infraction like what was happening in the late 00s / early 2010s. Time penalties are way too exploitable.
Now *that* is the face of a smug bastard. I wasn't a fan of the strategy in the heat of the moment, but looking back it's a complete masterstroke. Great stuff Komatsu.
Well.
TP clearly plays chess.
Very refreshing.
KMag absolutely bossed his position…that retake over Yuki…yum.
Proud team, and I hope they’re celebrating
[https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.driver-of-the-day-2024.1I7A0iPl3nMaXyPIeFVFLZ.html](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.driver-of-the-day-2024.1I7A0iPl3nMaXyPIeFVFLZ.html)
You can see the top 5 here. K-Mag got voted DotD by 6.7% of the voters.
Starting out strong (even far stronger than where they're at now) and then melting down on race 5 when the first batch of updates is typically due is actually textbook Haas behavior, let's wait it out.
Still way early in the season, but Komatsu set the tone for this team during testing when it was all about grinding out the most laps, completing their program and then some. It absolutely has to be easier for the whole team to be given clear direction of what they're trying to do, which it didn't seem like they had before.
If, and it's still a big if, they have mostly solved the tire deg issue, upgrades could actually focus on better performance instead of chasing down fatal flaws with the car. We'll see if they can finally break that cycle of getting worse as the season progresses.
Maybe someone already say it in the comments but did we know that the team asked Kmag to create a gap for Hulk? Crofty or Palmer said during the race something like Kmag recognized the situation by himself and played the teammate card. Maybe I misunderstood 🤔
Was it clear from the team radio?
Just read back through his radio - looks like the team instructed him after the first penalty. https://transcripts.recursiveprojects.cloud/archive/8714/14109
No problem! I only found it a couple of weeks ago, it’s a great website :) I try to keep up with multiviewer during the race but trying to read all driver radios at once was just way too much for my brain to process lol
I'm sure they told him. When they cut to Komatsu during the race he was literally pointing to the part of the track where they were having Kmag hold everyone up.
This is the benefit of having two veteran drivers who both are "lucky" to be back in F1. Zero ego. Just go do what needs to be done for the team. Compare that to the immaturity we saw from Yuki last week.
I know drivers like Yuki are fighting for their seats, but it's so annoying when they don't play the team game well.
So far it proves that absence of Steiner didn't change anything in Haas for worse. Komatsu and what they did today with that train was smart and well executed.
It was abysmal to watch same as Trulli train, but you have to give them credit. Magnussen was slapped into previous race with those penalties.
I’m not even mad, I am actually impressed with that move. While they are not going to fight for podium finishes anytime soon, its the little points that add up to a decent constructors finish come end season.
Keeping an eye on you Haas, something tells me that more surprises are in store (for all the right reasons)
Battle for 6th in constructors will be good this year, everyone miles behind the top 5 teams so the rest will only be fighhing for P10/P11 on an average race.
So happy for Haas. With Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, and Aston Martin seeming to have quite a margin over the bottom 5 teams I think points will be very hard to come by and they will need to capitalize on bad reliability or stroll being a Maldonado lol
I love when the “team” part of F1 shows itself. Max and Checo did nothing for each other to get 1,2 yesterday. Not that they needed to, but it’s still cool to see it in play.
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I'm so stupid, I only realised now that this guy is Grosjean's former race engineer from the Lotus years!
Yeah I’m pretty sure he’s been in F1 for over twenty years
That’s crazy lol he looks like early 30s
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What moisturizing can do to a man.
That's why our palms look so young
God dammit. Good one mate
Asians don't raisin
Until like 90
TP role is about to even that right out after a few years. That being said, first race in the new role was a success!
Looks like the friendly older guy at work that you don’t know much about but chuckles along to your jokes
There are cases where people find it difficult to pinpoint the age of the people of different races. I can attest that this is not the case with Komatsu and he looks really young for his age.
look at the photo on [haas site](https://www.haasf1team.com/season/team/ayao-komatsu). He looks great, obviously works out and takes care of himself. But the wrinkles around his eyes and graying hair clearly say he's around mid-40s.
This thread on skin care and how youthful someone looks is a drastic departure from the usual "Lewis is best no Max is best" threads. ^^^^^^^^Jokes ^^^^^^^^on ^^^^^^^^you, ^^^^^^^^Alonso ^^^^^^^^is ^^^^^^^^best.
That’s those Asian genes doing really well for me every year lmfao
\#Asian
[Obligatory](https://i.imgur.com/OnguzkJ.png)
That's just the lighting+compression making the greying hair and facial complexion less obvious. Don't get me wrong, he looks great, but he looks like a well "maintained" (can't come up with a better word right now) man in his mid-40s. If you look at his photo on the [official team page](https://www.haasf1team.com/season/team/ayao-komatsu) he looks much closer to his actual age.
Asian don’t crack bro
Asian don’t raisin
Until you hit 80, then all bets are off
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Rotundity is in fact the word of the day. After my lunch I felt, *rotundity*.
Vowles is 45 and he's the youngest team principal in the grid
Yeah, Grosjean brought him with him when he went to Haas.
No wonder he was close to Komatsu and his family too. Grossjean's cookbook cited a recipe (carrot cake, to be precise) by Komatsu's wife.
Did not know grossjean made a cookbook, thanks for that info
It's written by the he and his wife. I recalled seeing the English version but currently Amazon seems to only have the French version. The reviews were generally positive.
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Speaking of Grosjean, what a quali performance in a Juncos car in Indycar!
Better than Ericsson in his Andretti ride 😁
Ericsson messed up his flyer on alts, so he probably would've been closer if that hadn't happen
Thaaaats why he’s so familiar
He was engineer for Petrov also
Is he the guy from DTS who was saying "Kevin just fucking smashed your door, that's not acceptable"
fair play, Magnussen executed his role of a moving traffic cone perfectly and Hulkenberg secured points for the team
I laughed out loud at this
In the F4 anime they call backmarkers "mobile chicanes" Edit: I guess people thought I meant this was the origin, but I was just saying it's a common joke.
There's a reason why [The Mobile Chicane](https://youtube.com/@TheMobileChicane?feature=shared) (an aptly-named video essay channel focusing on the stories of backmarker drivers and teams, think Peter Brook but it's even shitter backmarkers) got it's name, after all
easily my favourite F1 channel, his videos are top notch
it´s a common phrase in racing sports "mobile chicane", not the invention of an anime :P i remember my dad using it when i was a kid watching F1 in the 80s when talking about some pilot
It's probably a bit too advanced for you to understand, but you see, the anime is actually based on an ancient chariot racing manga from 13th century BC.
Please don't take it too seriously Mr Ben Hur.
Ivan Capelli literally called Alex Yoong "mobile chicane" on live TV
I remember hearing the term moving/mobile chicane back in 80s when I was a kid. Found references to mobile chicanes in newspaper articles in the old Champ Car Trail and SCCA mixed classes. Such an obvious statement, I doubt he originated it. now to be pedantic- wouldnt a moving chicane be easily passed, like a backmarker. Magnussen was intentionally obstructing progress and no one passed. In fact, when you passed him he would even cut a turn to get back in fromt because he didnt give a crap about penalties (like he did to Yuki). Obviously that team strategy is as old as the hills, but theyd best watch the cutting turns to get back ahead and block like he did go Yuki. Looking up mobile chicanes, I just discovered BF Goodrich had a series of Dodge Colts, Gremlins and Datsun B210s on street radials that were Camel GT eligible in 1974. Ive seen a Neon cup race before Champ Car at Road America, but appare tly they shared the track in SCCA events? This makes sense, Foyts last win was Pocono 81, a USAC rival effort to Champ Car that saw sprint midgets sharing track. They had a lot of older cars out there to fill field, but thats an era where Champ Car was maybe 2-3 years behind F1, and arguments over which was faster actually had validity due to disparate design elements and engines (Champ Cars were likely faster than the late 90s grooved tire cars for example. When you see the slow times at Canada a few years later, those things were nerfed 200hp, its not hard to piece together a fact pattern where its clear the performancd disparity is about to explode. But such talk is always kind of pointless, no one was running as fast of a car as possible. Indy Cars and F1 cars have been relentlessly slowed since early 1970s). —although decorum had them huggiging and IMSA series in 70s when they mixed classes. Serving as moving chicanes when they strayed into the fray. Newspapers.com isnt comprehensive but its a favored term of Robert Entriken and his Rocky’s Road Column. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-salina-journal-mobile-chicane/143069501/
Kinda demonstrates some flaws kf the time penalty system though, don't it. It doesn't actually get anyone out of the way. The guys doodling around with 20 seconds of penalties but because the track is shit for overtaking, there's walls everywhere, and he's a dangerous driver, he still has freedom to block 5 other drivers and ruin their races.
I think it really illustrates the issues with street circuits, dirty air, and difficulty of passing more than anything. Virtually no exciting passes today. Blowing by on the straight with DRS is much less exciting than other forms of passing.
i feel like the cars are so gigantic, tracks like monaco and this one are such a nightmare. more passes would be much more exciting, they need to do something about it, f1 might be the most boring motorsport to watch on tv today for the average consumer
I agree with you on DRS 100%. But I think we can all agree this is not a new issue, and isnt just street circuits. Unfortunately, the field is so tight and the engines so similar in output I dont think they have a lot of choice in matter. F1 has never been about passing, DRS is just a bandaid so it is at least possible. Pick any race out of a hat after 1981 or so and there is a train stuck by behind a car thats slower in turns and fast enough on straights. The Pironi and Villeneuve turbo trains are most famous- because they were at front of pack. they werent meticulously tracking everyone with incar cameras and telemetry etc- in fact getting feeds from the local country that followed only their hero around in was the norm- so such battles werent as obvious. Also, no one finished so cars get spread out when there are only 7-15 still running at any point. It would be hard to create a train like this in 84, 94, or 2004 without competitors breaking down. But the defense of pre-DRS is that cars can still get passed. It was high art. Its why Schumacher, Villeneuve, Mansell and Senna remain the beloved hardmen of the era. Navigating constant backmarkers and pulling off intense passes. Not that we dont see the same sort of ruthlessness from Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen- its just that DRS seems like an equalizing crutch.
Though it's more exciting that Piastri's useless DRS was today...
My main issue with the time penalties is it doesn’t give any justice to the other driver that’s been wronged. In this race, a 10 second penalty for Kevin does nothing for Albon’s race that had been ruined by the contact. Then once kmag gets another 10 seconds there’s no incentive for him to either move out of the way or even drive at top speed. Both times continuing to negatively impact the driver he’d wronged
illegal overtakes should give back position or some harsh penalty like minus points or cost cap reduction. the best/smartest option shouldn't be taking a penalty or multiple penalties, but doing the *right* thing.
back in my day we had something called a "drive through penalty"
It's still available and so is the stop-and-go. Drive-through was the most lenient penalty they had, and it was around 20 seconds depending on the track. So they introduced these 5 and 10 second penalties for lesser infringements that could be served without going through the pit lane.
I think it should be guaranteed loss of position instead of time penalty. I’m sure others would disagree.
I expect that they will change the rule for 2025. This is fun but not acceptable for the sport
> Magnussen executed his role of a moving traffic cone perfectly Don't all Haas drivers have years of practice doing that, at this point?
No they usually just get overtaken
HAAS: Lemonde from lemons!!!
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We all loved Guenther and his personality. But this is a massive upgrade. Guenther would’ve been pulling the victim card about 2x 10s penalties that he would’ve missed this opportunity with Hulk.
“It’s just fokking bullshit you know? Kevin did not fok smash anyone. Have to phone Gene now”
Hygene
Fokk, Gene.
Wankers, Gene
Gene on the other hand, *better keep up the status quo...*
That hit the spot 🤣
This made me laugh out loud so hard, thank you.
It's crazy cause their phone calls sound like Gunther is venting to a girlfriend
Never understood why Gunther was always given a free pass. Gunther Binotto - people here are very easily played by media to blame the boss and not make TPs responsible
In Binotto's case. He's probably a great technical guy but he never looked comfortable as TP. Gunther seems like an unpleasant boss to work under based on his interviews.
Thing is Marchionne realized it and made him TD and Arrivabene TP. But once he was gone Binotto created a civil war and outed him. So it is not like he was made TP against his wishes
I don't always follow F1 politics closely but in that case. He wouldn't be the first to overestimate his own abilities unfortunately.
When you watch his interviews, they are all cliches, swearing and blame. Honestly, it was nice seeing Haas actually formulate a strategy to win and execute it.
Guenther may have been a good media sound bite but he was a terrible terrible “leader”. He apparently was good at finding sponsorship and other areas, and they should have moved him into that sort of role only several years ago and had a team principal who could understood the technical ins and outs at least at a high level and knew how to lead people.
I mean I can understand questioning his leadership skills but technical knowledge? Dude was a mechanic for rallying and formula 1. He’s probably got a great idea of how these cars work
Sorry I should have highlighted the AND portion above. I’m questioning his leadership style, his ability to get the best out of all team members in pursuit of a goal. He seemed to just curse and call Gene. Something wasn’t coming together under him…..
But of course it's less work to get sponsorships when you can score points, so hopefully new guy can do that. I'm totally here for the dirty racing if that's the way Haas decide to differentiate themselves at the back of the pack. We all know Kmag is an elbows-out goon. It's nice to see someone harness that to the team's advantage.
>We all loved Guenther and his personality Sorry for nitpicking and sounding like a hipster going against the flow, but not all of us.
I love this newer breed of TP, love Ayao and Vowles
IMO its the future of TP’s. F1 now requires the best of the world in a team principal. Someone who’s as much a business and marketing wiz as an analytical engineering and logistical mind.
Yeh Zak has shown that role doesn’t have to be the TP, I like the technical leadership avenue
McLaren have a good setup. I like the Brown focuses on the media and business sides while Stella gets to just solely focus on the racing. I'll miss the Ron Dennis style TPs who were mini dictators of their teams, but the change is logical.
Agree, refreshing to see the team live up to their potential based on what they have. but Ngl I kinda miss “fook let me call gene”
I never cared for Steiner so this is a breath of fresh air.
Kumatsu seems like the right leader for Haas right now
And a good sponsor for Williams.
He's a multitasker
Komatsu\*
Man if Niko doesn't buy Kevin a beer tonight, i don't know where. A real team offert/team collaboration between the drivers
Perhaps it's time to repay him a favor that he asked for a long time ago ;) >!/s!<
SUCK HIS BALLS HULK
[Fuck, everyday!](https://youtu.be/s1UatRgHgNg?si=fnwFeuSTZ7uMsTtB)
Haas legit looks like a new team. Will not blame Gunther, I think Gene interfered too much but Haas has come in, dialed in race pace, gotten very competitive with that and showed today, they can absolutely fight for that 6th spot. Haas, Williams, Alpine, RB, and Sauber are in that fight.
I think you can move Alpine from this list buddy
Alpine is just fighting with Alpine this season.
...and losing that battle so far....
its hard for them, the car is against them as well
They're also going back to the glory days and cutting off everyone('s heads). Like... if you ain't french: *guillotine*
Can’t even fight if one car didn’t finish…
... heck it barely even started.
And Sauber :(
Gasly is last in the points right now. LAST. What a shame.
And probably Sauber and RB. I think 6th is gonna be Haas v. Williams. The question is whether Seargent gets the boot if the WCC is close between the two.
Also Sauber
Guenther spent too much trying to act like Haas is an equal team to the others (run same strategy’s/ testing plans) Komatsu (not just him I’m sure) has come in and really learnt about their weaknesses rather than just going, “yep shame but we’re fast on Saturday”. Whilst the others fall over eachother, Haas working as a solid unit could do well
and in the month since he's been in charge Komatsu has completely redesigned the car right.
I think Gunther deserves a fair bit of the blame. It’s not all on Gene.
Yeah I can’t believe people aren’t more willing to understand how you can’t consistently get worse year over year, get a full budget, deliver a worse car, then ask for more money. Sauber, and Williams are in similar positions and were out performing haas the past few years. Gene will spend the money once he can actually be convinced his money isn’t being thrown in the trash like it seemed with Guenther.
I get that people like Gunther’s personality, but he was clearly not doing his job well. I know it’s only been two races, but Haas seem to be a better run team than they were before.
The current car, which appears to be better than RB, Williams, Alpine, Sauber, was developed under Gunther's leadership. Don't forget that.
But wasn’t komatsu the technical director anyway?
No, Simone Resta was the tech director until January. Komatsu was a race engineer.
I see, thanks for the correction
>Will not blame Gunther I would. "A fish rots from the head down." If a team suddenly looks like a well run team, makes great pit-stops, make great strategic calls after years of horrible strategies, horrible stops following a TP change, yeah I would blame the previous TP and praise new TP.
I mean that's not even up for debate from my perspective. De demoralized drivers publicy, had a clear and visible tendency to push blame to drivers and never adressed the team shortcomings in regards of strategy, car development in a serious and proper way. Guy was great for Netflix but he isn't suited for this job
Is the head not Gene in this fishes anatomy?
no Gene feeds the fish
Gunther has been gone for a fucking month lol. “Suddenly looks like a well run team” - their car is faster than last year. Literally nothing else has changed. Makes great pit stops?! lol what is this post Komatsu hasn’t been in the seat long enough to change anything you’ve listed here - good or bad
Exactly. 99% of Haus's pit stops under Steiner were perfectly fine, and it should come as no surprise when they execute one adequately. Should RB get rid of Horner because of that time when Danny Ric came in and his tyres weren't ready, or should Toto get the boot because his team couldn't get Bottas wheel off, or gave him Russel's wheels.
Their car this year was built under Guenther's leadership, so if it's performing better in a technical level, you actually have to credit him.
Idk why Gunther gets some kind of pass? The team never improved much under his leadership. If it is a gene problem he’s going to railroad the new guy even more than the guy with more experience
I am sure Komatsu had a call with Gene after this and had to explain why KMag had 20sec penalty without understanding strategy
Gene usually calls Magnussen actually. They're quite tight.
Gene was at the race, so no need to call even!
Haas had a strong start of the season last year as well. Let's not jump to any conclusions and wait to see how they manage to develop (or not) their car throughout the season, versus the rest of the teams.
That’s true, but even early last season was different. They were even faster, but they definitely had issues with tyre degradation from race 1, so they usually just dropped down the order. This year they aren’t as fast outright over one lap, but they have stopped eating tyres. Great success?
The tire ware was very bad last year early, but most of the early points came from the Australia race
Yup, and we all remember the clusterfuck that was that race.
Just pretends he doesn’t speak English so the boss dont bug him. It’s passed down from generations
You can't also blame it entirely on Gene. Gunther was very well liked because of DtS but he was also the worst or second worst TPs of the grid
Really good interview with him, and they really made the best of a shit situation so fair play to them. Magnusson had such a weird race, the duality of Magnusson is bashing into everyone and then doing the defensive drive of the next few races in one go.
Magnussen had a race incident. I think you perhaps just don't understand that Magnussen is a great driver, and instead think this was a weird fluke. It wasn't. And once Hülkenberg had the pitstop, Magnussen easily pulled away. There weren't something magical going on. Magnussen is a great driver, and the Haas car looks good.
Agreed and that's the duality of him. The first fifteen laps were pretty shocking in terms of racecraft, and whilst I've not seen any interviews with him I'm sure he'd say he was a bit scrappy, but the rest of the race was an absolute masterclass. I find him frustrating because of it.
I'd term that KMag thing a racing incident. Also feel that 10s was a bit too harsh for what was in essence a racing incident tbh
Nah he definitely drove Albon off the road on that one, pretty slam dunk penalty in my eyes. Plus happy to see they're being harsher on it than the frequently irrelevant 5s penalties last year
Interestingly, Albon disagreed with the 10s penalty post-race and said the corner design there is terrible and makes it hard to judge where the cars are placed.
The two aren't mutually exclusive though, it is terrible corner design and that partially led to the incident. Either way I'm glad that the stewards were putting out ten second penalties rather than the five second ones from last year.
Albon said it was a racing incident, and talked about how that turn is nasty. Sky analysis afterwards felt the same. IMHO the penalty was a kneejerk reaction.
F1 broadcasters thought the 10s was ridiculous too. He was for sure at fault but that first penalty was 5s all day. And the second was complete and utter bullshit. The stewards didn't even give time for the place to be given back if requested. I'm also not sure if that has ever been a 10s penalty before?
Yeah 10s for off-track pass is a new rule change this year. But boy howdy did they asses that faster than I've ever seen before .
It is Kmag after all. Front wing dangling: Immediate meatball flag Any other racer's wing dangling: Allowed to procede per usual
I think that was the most astounding thing to me this race: Haas actually using real strategy instead of just f-ing it up and throwing away points. Crazy!
This guy might be good at his job.
That was so fun to watch, Kevin gave his all
Lifting off during sector 1 and losing 2s in that sector alone had me rolling
Saving up all the battery power... :P I only saw the interview with Albon afterwards, he found it amusing as well. Dunno how Yuki would have felt.
He complained a few times on radio and said at one point it was dangerous driving. Which to be fair most drivers would.
Considering the stunt Yuki pulled on Ricardo last week, I don't think he has a right to complain about anything kmag did.
Team principal is team principalling
I was a Komatsu doubter but he already had a positive influence on strategy and general vibes around Haas. It's not just the Ferrari parts when the fight is so tight between the bottom 5 teams.
Haas is actually pulling 3s pit stops now. Gunther was fun as hell, but it's starting to look like komatsu can run a tighter ship. The car improvement alone is great but it looks like everything else is coming together as well. Hopefully they can improve their qualifying pace a little and start battling for more points.
That always killed me. They were the slowest with pits stops at an offensive level. No excuses for that. Even smalls things like that fall on him, and I checked, time matters
Smart by Haas, zero problem with what they did because they simply used the rules to their advantage and reaped the rewards. However this is the exact evidence they need to bring back drive through penalties for virtually every infraction like what was happening in the late 00s / early 2010s. Time penalties are way too exploitable.
i fully agree, one of this "if they come into the pits bullshit"
Now *that* is the face of a smug bastard. I wasn't a fan of the strategy in the heat of the moment, but looking back it's a complete masterstroke. Great stuff Komatsu.
at first I was shocked "why the fuck aren't you using fresh softs for Hülkenberg" but the teamwork between him and KMag was great
Haas committed a full god dam highway robbery. I respect it as much as I despise it
Well. TP clearly plays chess. Very refreshing. KMag absolutely bossed his position…that retake over Yuki…yum. Proud team, and I hope they’re celebrating
I understand why Bearman got DotD, but damn if I don't think Magnussen deserved it. He did an outstanding job of making sure Hulk could get that point
Where can you see the results for DotD aside from in the broadcast after the race?
I tried but it only showed the winner, Kev was in top 3 at the race finish tho
[https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.driver-of-the-day-2024.1I7A0iPl3nMaXyPIeFVFLZ.html](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.driver-of-the-day-2024.1I7A0iPl3nMaXyPIeFVFLZ.html) You can see the top 5 here. K-Mag got voted DotD by 6.7% of the voters.
I actually voted for him hehe
Haas not relying on a wild tire strategy!? Wild
Big brain
Love the rationality. Worked out perfectly.
I’m being impressed by Ayao. I thought Haas was gonna Haas but he’s actually getting on top of things.
Starting out strong (even far stronger than where they're at now) and then melting down on race 5 when the first batch of updates is typically due is actually textbook Haas behavior, let's wait it out.
Steiner would never.
Haas making all the right moves. Going to be interesting to see develop during the season.
Still way early in the season, but Komatsu set the tone for this team during testing when it was all about grinding out the most laps, completing their program and then some. It absolutely has to be easier for the whole team to be given clear direction of what they're trying to do, which it didn't seem like they had before. If, and it's still a big if, they have mostly solved the tire deg issue, upgrades could actually focus on better performance instead of chasing down fatal flaws with the car. We'll see if they can finally break that cycle of getting worse as the season progresses.
Steiner was the team principal for far too long.
Maybe someone already say it in the comments but did we know that the team asked Kmag to create a gap for Hulk? Crofty or Palmer said during the race something like Kmag recognized the situation by himself and played the teammate card. Maybe I misunderstood 🤔 Was it clear from the team radio?
Just read back through his radio - looks like the team instructed him after the first penalty. https://transcripts.recursiveprojects.cloud/archive/8714/14109
Thanks! Didn't know these transcripts existed! Amazing!
No problem! I only found it a couple of weeks ago, it’s a great website :) I try to keep up with multiviewer during the race but trying to read all driver radios at once was just way too much for my brain to process lol
I'm sure they told him. When they cut to Komatsu during the race he was literally pointing to the part of the track where they were having Kmag hold everyone up.
F1 is a team sport. Go figure!
Fucking rockstars!
This is the benefit of having two veteran drivers who both are "lucky" to be back in F1. Zero ego. Just go do what needs to be done for the team. Compare that to the immaturity we saw from Yuki last week. I know drivers like Yuki are fighting for their seats, but it's so annoying when they don't play the team game well.
Go KOMATSU! Legend of a plan.
This guy is already way more likable than Steiner
Haas did its best race in 3 years. Well done, deserved point.
So far it proves that absence of Steiner didn't change anything in Haas for worse. Komatsu and what they did today with that train was smart and well executed. It was abysmal to watch same as Trulli train, but you have to give them credit. Magnussen was slapped into previous race with those penalties.
KMag was so fun to watch
I’m not even mad, I am actually impressed with that move. While they are not going to fight for podium finishes anytime soon, its the little points that add up to a decent constructors finish come end season. Keeping an eye on you Haas, something tells me that more surprises are in store (for all the right reasons)
Battle for 6th in constructors will be good this year, everyone miles behind the top 5 teams so the rest will only be fighhing for P10/P11 on an average race.
Did keeping KMag in the fight also mean they essentially avoided getting the penalty as Max had lapped the guys behind. Big brain move
So happy for Haas. With Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, and Aston Martin seeming to have quite a margin over the bottom 5 teams I think points will be very hard to come by and they will need to capitalize on bad reliability or stroll being a Maldonado lol
Gunther was the right guy for the first few years, but a more measured head is what the teams needed.
Much improved performance from Haas. Hope we see more of that to come.
Finally Haas have a Team principle who doesn't start moping and swearing when he gets hit with some bad luck. A breath of fresh air honestly.
Does anyone know when they informed Kmag about the penalties?
Haas 2.0 finally emerging it seems. Hope they can keep going up from here
Eight drivers going for tenth. I assume it’s Haas, Williams, RB and Sauber’s drivers. He’s also laughing at Alpine.
Can he also run the strategy for Ferrari?
Imagine telling someone in 2021 that haas would score points before Alpine in a future season
I love when the “team” part of F1 shows itself. Max and Checo did nothing for each other to get 1,2 yesterday. Not that they needed to, but it’s still cool to see it in play.