Komatsu identifies Haas’s key target for second half of the 2024 season

Haas boss Ayao Komatsu says that the team’s main focus will be fighting RB for sixth place in the constructors’ championship as the second half of the 2024 season gets under way.

It has been a solid start to the year for the American outfit, with the squad having already scored more than double the number of points that they ended 2023 with, despite entering the campaign with the expectation of being at the back of the grid.

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With 10 races remaining, Haas’s 27 points have put them in P7 of the constructors’ championship, just seven points behind RB in P6, and Komatsu is hopeful that the team can challenge for the position going forward.

However, off the back of two tougher weekends in Hungary and Belgium prior to the summer break, the Team Principal also acknowledged that the squad need to assess where they stand when the action resumes at the Dutch Grand Prix.

“Looking at where we are now, we are seven points behind P6, RB, so we have to go for trying to get P6 in the championship,” Komatsu explained in a Haas catch-up chat. “That’s our target for the rest of the season.

“Straight after shutdown, in Zandvoort, see if we can perform and then get back to scoring points. Budapest was tough and Spa was tough, and we are looking into now why we couldn’t perform in those two races, so [we can gain an] understanding of that.

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“It’s too late to then influence the development, because development for the rest of the season is done now, but just in terms of how we set the car up for the track, how we go about managing tyres, etc.

“Any learning we can take from Budapest and Spa would be beneficial. It’s really a continuous process, but the sporting target will be trying to fight for P6 in the championship.”

While sixth is the results target for Haas, Komatsu identified another factor that will define how successful the team’s season has been when asked about the one achievement that he would like them to finish 2024 with.

“Honestly, I think a real sense of teamwork,” he answered.

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“I think we are doing much better as a team, but if we can finish the season and when everyone here [can] look back and say, ‘right, we worked as a team, we put it together, [in] tough times, good times, we worked together and then produced this result as a team’, and if everyone in the team can feel like they can own this result, whatever we achieve end of the season…

“It doesn’t matter who you are, if each person feels like, ‘I contributed to this success, I own this result’, I think that’s a success.”