mobile app bar

Haas Team Boss Ayao Komatsu Reveals the Reason Behind Kevin Magnussen’s Difficult 2023 Season

Anirban Aly Mandal
Published

Haas Team Boss Ayao Komatsu Reveals the Reason Behind Kevin Magnussen’s Difficult 2023 Season

2023 would be a year to forget for Kevin Magnussen. After the highs of a maiden pole in 2022, last year was a nightmare for the Haas driver. With an average grid position of 12 and a finish position of 14, the Danish racer could only score three points for the team throughout the 22-race calendar. That being said, Haas’ latest team principal and former trackside engineering director, Ayao Komatsu, has absolved the 31-year-old for his dismal season and blamed the VF-23 instead.

While talking about the troubled 2023 car, Komatsu explained how the characteristics of the car never really suited Magnussen’s driving style. He told Motorsport.com, “He [Magnussen] is a driver who needs good stability on entry and constant management in corners.”

On the contrary, Komatsu believes that the team have worked on the problems that plagued last year’s car. Hence, he is hopeful that Magnussen will have a better year in 2024 as the car will hopefully be more to his liking and driving style.

The latest era of Formula 1 has given teams a lot to think about. For example, drivers need to adapt their driving styles to the new era of cars.

With new profile Pirelli tires added to the mix at the beginning of 2022, the team will now work around the limitations of the current regulations to help prepare a car that suits Magnussen’s ‘U-style’ driving as opposed to the current ‘V-style’ being forced on him due to the low and rigid ride limitations.

2023 was the final nail in the coffin for Haas in Formula 1

As the 2023 season came to a conclusion after the Abu Dhabi GP, a grim reality started to dawn on the team. They had indeed finished last in the Constructors’ Championship. This was seen by many as the final act of their preceding years’ miseries.

After a strong debut season in 2016, the Kannapolis-based outfit started slipping down the order. Since 2019, the team has seen one controversy or the other off the track, in terms of Rich Energy or even Nikita Mazepin. Meanwhile, on the track, their performance kept degrading.

The culmination of the 2023 season also saw Guenther Steiner lose his job as the leader of the team. After masterminding the very existence of the team on the grid, Gene Haas showed the revered Italian the exit door in acrimonious circumstances.

As it turns out, he did not even get to say his farewells to people who he had called teammates for the last eight years. A sort of anger was reflected in Steiner when he said, “I can accuse him but that doesn’t do anything because he can make his decisions, he is free to decide,” as quoted by Soymotor.com.

Post Edited By:Vidit Dhawan

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal

linkedin-icon

Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

Share this article