{"id":19113,"date":"2024-03-07T07:48:22","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T12:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=19113"},"modified":"2024-03-07T07:48:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T12:48:22","slug":"nico-hulkenberg-refreshing-komatsu-approach-is-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/07\/nico-hulkenberg-refreshing-komatsu-approach-is-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Nico Hulkenberg: &#8220;Refreshing&#8221; Komatsu approach is working"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Nico Hulkenberg is full of praise for the new Haas team principal, Ayao Komatsu.<\/h3>\n<p>P12 and P16 were Haas F1 Team&#8217;s opening results of 2024. Taken in isolation, this would only be a minor change from last season. However, even a basic analysis will show Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen have reasons to be optimistic.<\/p>\n<p>Qualifying was the first sign of promise for Haas, who spent most of pre-season focusing on race simulations.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the team&#8217;s heavy prioritisation on high-fuel running, Nico Hulkenberg once again showed his prowess.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Magnussen was less impressive, though still managed a respectable P15.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of performance, things only got better for Ayao Komatsu&#8217;s team.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"nqpK1yqUTWNkUz1av8gqHA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2056613480\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'nqpK1yqUTWNkUz1av8gqHA',sig:'KAiNdjlM_-tcPYcGvjJ4bCSmTI3BQ23rSof3yyKeBHQ=',w:'594px',h:'440px',items:'2056613480',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Early contact forced Nico Hulkenberg into an early stop, and an average qualifying meant points were always unlikely for his Danish teammate.<\/p>\n<p>However, both drivers showed considerable pace over a race distance. More significantly, the VF-24 proved far more gentle on its tyres than its predecessor.<\/p>\n<p>For a team that also faced tyre struggles in 2019, there will be a sigh of relief that progress was made over winter.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Haas benefiting from a new approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>During the Saudi Arabia GP Drivers&#8217; Press Conference, Hulkenberg commented on Komatsu&#8217;s leadership:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Yeah, obviously he didn&#8217;t have to settle or get to know the team.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But I think he settled in well into his new position. He got thrown in the cold water, definitely.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Obviously, a lot of new responsibilities and things he has to do are new to him.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But so far, I think he&#8217;s doing a very good job taking it all in, looking for the fastest way to performance.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Also for the medium and long term.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;He&#8217;s got a lot of interesting and good ideas. So, yeah, it&#8217;s quite refreshing and feels positive so far.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a id=\"SCfwcufvQh9MzdYFZxy7hA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2063242944\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'SCfwcufvQh9MzdYFZxy7hA',sig:'6UyK4CKbcxyk1SARzXqNQONUjNtGX_QLgpl-zmOohq8=',w:'594px',h:'392px',items:'2063242944',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>When asked for similarities between Komatsu and Steiner, Hulkenberg responded, <em>&#8220;none, pretty different.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For all the positives just mentioned, it cannot be overlooked that foundational weaknesses still remain.<\/p>\n<p>Haas are still in a tightly contested midfield consisting of teams that outspend them.<\/p>\n<p>Still, difficulties elsewhere on the field and a resurgent Ferrari could keep the team in contention throughout 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst the teal test for Haas will be later in the season, the VF-24 is at least something they can work with.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, a new set of regulations in 2026 could limit the resources teams divert into 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Potentially, this could help mitigate the impacts of the minimal development at Haas relative to others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nico Hulkenberg is full of praise for the new Haas team principal, Ayao Komatsu. P12 and P16 were Haas F1 Team&#8217;s opening results of 2024. Taken in isolation, this would only be a minor change from last season. However, even a basic analysis will show Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen have reasons to be optimistic. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":19009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,2224,68,2238,23,301,256],"class_list":["post-19113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-ayao-komatsu","tag-f1","tag-f1-2024","tag-formula-1","tag-haas-f1-team","tag-nico-hulkenberg"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}