Aside from securing 7th place in the standings in 2024, Haas also enjoyed notable achievements away from the track. Their landmark partnership with Toyota, orchestrated by team principal Ayao Komatsu, will provide Haas with a desperately needed boost in resources.
Haas working with limited resources
It is common knowledge in Formula 1 that Haas don’t enjoy the same financial resources as other teams.
With a total of just over 300 personnel, every other outfit on the grid has at least double – in some cases triple – the staff at Haas’ disposal.
Another limitation for the US squad is their lack of infrastructure. Unlike other teams, Komatsu’s engineers do not have the luxury of year-round access to a simulator.
The simulator they use isn’t even their own, instead sharing the one used by Ferrari in Maranello. As a team with a base in the UK, the logistics of using this essential tool are somewhat of a headache.
Thankfully for Haas, their new partnership with Toyota will change this. Not only will the Japanese brand construct a new simulator, but they also have the necessary personnel to operate it.
READ MORE: How Aston Martin plan to reach “90%” upgrade success rate
Speaking towards the end of last year, Ayao Komatsu spoke candidly about the importance of this deal:
“With Toyota, they can help us in many areas,” he told the Pelas Pistas Podcast.
“Like CFD, aerodynamics, composite design, testing, simulator. So, many areas where bigger teams are all doing it by themselves.
“Let’s take the simulator. We use the Ferrari simulator, but that’s in Italy – we probably only use it for 10-15 days a year.
“We use the one in Maranello, because that’s where the office is. But again, all our race team is based in the UK.
“So in this 24 race calendar, I cannot send my performance engineer to a simulator session Italy – otherwise they’ll never be home…
“So with this Toyota partnership, we’re going to have that [a new simulator in the UK]. Of course, it’s going to take time to actually feel that impact – but at least we can start straight away.
“They don’t just have the hardware, they have the operators who understand it as well. So that’s kind of fast-forwarding the process to make us a bigger team.”
A promising future for Haas
On paper, a team operating with such a limited budget and so few personnel should not be competitive in Formula 1. Despite this, Haas constantly punch above their weight.
Under Komatsu’s leadership, they were consistently at the front of the midfield in 2024 – regularly scoring points and cementing themselves as a team to be taken seriously.
Replacing Nico Hulkenberg (who was an indispensable asset) with Grand Prix winner Esteban Ocon is evidence of their increased influence in the driver market.
Perhaps more notably, their development programme was very effective. Teams with far more sophisticated tools at their disposal – such as Aston Martin – could not replicate the mid-season gains achieved by this humble US outfit.
However, this does not mean Haas can be satisfied. As explained on numerous occasions by their team principal, reinforcements are needed to sustain their growth.
