Haas intends to continue the surprise effect in China

P7! At the end of winter, no one could have imagined that Haas would be able to get into the points three times and be the pleasant surprise in the middle of the table. A position at the door of the “Top 5” that the Japanese manager hopes to hold. Although it is still too early to speak of an “Ayao Komatsu” effect, it is possible to say that the engineer's more “low profile” approach seems to be bearing fruit.

There seem to be fewer distractions within the Yankee structure where “performance” has regained a central place. In a way, following the established French expression, the Japanese seems to have put the church back in the middle of the village; what Bruno Famin is trying to do at Alpine with more difficulty. Now the question is whether the team will be able to extend the moment?

« We don't have enough downforce at high speed, says Komatsu who sets the next objective to achieve. This is what we need to improve first. We also need to improve certain features of the front end of the car. Considering that Suzuka could be considered one of the most difficult tracks for us, I think we did pretty well, or less badly than expected. It's encouraging. Nico's P12 (Hulkenberg) in Q2 was pretty incredible, but I was really dreading the race. »

“Keeping the position was going to be difficult, and although we actually fell back at the start of the course, we managed to come back, continues Haas Team Principal. Too bad it wasn't great operationally. Better management of the race would possibly have allowed Kevin (Magnussen) to stay in front tsunoda. And then, without his disastrous start, Nico could have scored points. We could have done better, but it remains very positive since the weaknesses of our car have been highlighted. In Shanghai, the corner speeds are lower and the back straight is very long, as is the pit straight, which should suit our car better, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what we can do. »

Shanghai Express

Shanghai which has not been visited since 2019, and which will have the additional problem of including a Sprint race! “ Our biggest challenge will be to set the car up to the right conditions from FP1, notes the boss. In the weekend's practice session alone we have three sets of tyres, so in an hour we will probably do three runs and in that time you really have to prepare the car for the Sprint qualifying of the 'afternoon, so that will be our biggest challenge. »

Haas hopes for a bright spring © DPPI

At Suzuka, if we base ourselves on EL1 alone, Haas will have to make a big effort because the balance of the car house was not good at the end of the session. “ A similar challenge awaits us in Shanghai. We will therefore have to do things correctly, from the start of FP1. We learned a lot at Suzuka in operational terms, car settings, reaction to the situation. There's a lot of room for improvement, but there were enough positives for us to say we can do a better job. »

A challenge which could prove even more complicated since Friday could be wet according to the latest predictions. “ It would be all the more damaging as we are also going to present the first part of our improved package, concludes the replacement for Gunther Steiner. If the weather is wet, we won't have much to learn. On the other hand, if it is dry, the objective is to spend the session trying to adjust the car for the new aerodynamic package. So lots to do! »And in all directions…

ALSO READ > Prost understands Hamilton's choice to go to Ferrari but...