“It’s Not That Gene Has No Money”: Ayao Komatsu Makes Haas’ Priorities Clear

Haas have had a decent start to the 2024 season after they decided to part ways with longstanding team principal Guenther Steiner at the end of last year. The one major topic where the team needs to make a decision soon is their driver line-up for 2025.

With Nico Hulkenberg leaving for Sauber next year, Haas need to decide if they want to retain Kevin Magnussen and just sign a replacement for the German or get two new drivers to the team. As Haas continues to contemplate the same, new team principal Ayao Komatsu has made their priorities clear.

When asked if they are looking for a driver who will bring in money to the team, Komatsu replied, as quoted on Twitter (now X), “That is not our main motivation. The team has to improve. It’s not that Gene [Haas] has no money. Ultimately, they just want to find a driver who is worth his money”.

Haas admits Magnussen could be replaced for 2025 https://t.co/K2DOrXp9tF pic.twitter.com/eTnGZ9f3BY

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The Japanese boss then further stressed that Haas’ priority is to look for areas where they can find more performance. Komatsu believes that they need a driver who can guide the team in such a direction as doing so will, in turn, help the team earn more money if they are able to finish higher up in the Constructors’ Championship.

Komatsu also made similar remarks earlier this year when he seemingly took a dig at former team principal Guenther Steiner. The 48-year-old explained how Gene Haas hated some of Steiner’s decisions that resulted in the team “wasting money”.

Ayao Komatsu slammed Guenther Steiner for “wasting money”

Soon after Ayao Komatsu took over the role of team principal, he slammed Guenther Steiner for some of the decisions the Italian-American made when he was leading the team. In a F1: Beyond the Grid interview, Komatsu said,

“Gene wants performance to increase and hates wasting money, something we have done in recent years. So there needs to be a, there will be better cooperation and then those performances will come naturally”.

Steiner indeed made some decisions that caused Haas more trouble than benefits. For example, he took the decision to sign both Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, with the hope that both drivers will help bring the team a huge amount of sponsorship money that they can use to improve the performance of their car.

However, instead of helping the team move forward, both Mazepin and Schumacher turned out to be a headache for Steiner because of their repeated crashes. As a result of the same, the 58-year-old often had to have some difficult conversations with team owner Gene Haas, as revealed in some of the episodes of Netflix’s Drive to Survive.

Now, considering Komatsu’s recent remarks, it seems that the team no longer wants to go down that path. Instead, they are keen on signing a strong driver who can guide the team in the direction they need to take to get the results they desire.