Who is Ayao Komatsu, the new Team Principal of Haas?

Ayao Komatsu, a true man behind the scenes since the beginning of Haas F1 Team in 2016, starts his ninth season with the American team in a new role as Team Principal. Let’s look back at the long career of the 47-year-old Japanese engineer.

A career led by several promotions.

Born in Tokyo on January 28, 1976, Ayao Komatsu left his native country during his studies when he was 19 years old. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1995 and obtained a degree in automotive engineering from Loughborough University.

He finds his first position in Formula 1 with the British team British American Racing (BAR), better known as BAR, in 2003. He will hold the role of pneumatic engineer there until his departure in 2005, just before the acquisition of BAR by Honda.

At the dawn of the 2006 season, he becomes a performance engineer at Renault. He will climb the ranks within the French team before becoming Vitaly Petrov’s race engineer in 2011. After a full season with the Russian driver, the Renault team disappears and makes way for Lotus F1 Team.

Komatsu then became Romain Grosjean’s race engineer in 2012 and continued in that position until the end of the 2014 season. The two men fought for podiums and victories, but unfortunately, the French driver never managed to secure a win. In 2015, Komatsu was appointed as the chief race engineer at Lotus and would oversee the duo of Grosjean and Maldonado. However, Lotus withdrew from Formula 1 that same year, leaving Komatsu without a position after spending 10 seasons with the Renault and Lotus teams.

The American Adventure

While Romain Grosjean is announced for the 2016 season at Haas F1 Team, a brand new team, Ayao Komatsu decides to follow the Frenchman and become the chief race engineer in the American team.

Japanese driver remains faithful to his team and is rewarded for it, on Wednesday, January 10th, 2024, by being promoted to the position of team principal for Gene Haas’ racing team.