Led by Ayao Komatsu, Haas and the VF-25 did not have the best start to the 2025 Formula One season. Despite ending the 2024 season on a much better note, placing P7 in the Constructors’ and making a more consistent appearance in points, it seemed this momentum hadn’t quite followed the American outfit over into the new year.
Team principal Ayao Komatsu has admitted that the team “definitely didn’t do a good job over the winter.”
Haas left Melbourne empty handed with both drivers placing at the bottom of the grid at P13 and P14. There were 6 cars that DNFed that race. They were easily the slowest on race day.
It looked much more optimistic in Shanghai. Esteban Ocon was an excellent P7 during the race. He was later promoted to P5 following the disqualification of both Ferrari drivers. His rookie teammate, Ollie Bearman charged through to 10th with great passes, subsequently being promoted to P8.
How will they fare in Suzuka? The Japanese Grand Prix will be a home race of Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu.
When asked if the team was expecting new parts for the race, Komatsu noted that regardless if it was his home race or not, they would not be rushing to find “short-term” solutions, focusing on getting the issues fixed as the year goes on.
Regardless, Haas will be bringing updates to the VF-25 to try and improve the car’s performance in high speed.
“Seriously, whether it’s in front of a home crowd or not, we’ve got a serious issue, right? But then we’ve got to be sensible.
“If you really, really just focus on short-term too much, it might damage your chance of sorting out properly in the medium-term, right? So you’ve got to really balance that.
“But for Suzuka, yes, we are trying to get some modifications done to the car. Then what we believe is very sensitive to this problem is that we definitely didn’t do a good job over the winter.”
Haas’ high speed issues only came to light on the Friday in Melbourne. During testing in Bahrain, turn 12 had already been a bit of a red flag for them even if they did not realise it fully until Australia. That corner at Sakhir is a flat out one.
“We just missed it. And then again, you might ask why we missed it. Because it is actually quite a difficult problem, but it’s not something that you can see in the wind tunnel.
“So things like what you have on the CFD analysis methodology, even the wind tunnel data, tools you have, those are the areas I believe we are so far behind.”
“So now we’ve got this issue. I mean, I understand why we couldn’t preempt it.”
The turns 9 and 10 section at Albert Park exposed a nasty flaw for the VF-25, high speed cornering performance.
Haas hopes that the changes they’re bringing for the VF-25 to Japan will start to help solve the problem. The iconic race track in the far east is full of high speed corners in Sector 1.
Komatsu says that based on the success of the upgrade the team will act accordingly.
“In Suzuka, like I said, we’re going to try to bring slight modifications to the car. How much does it improve at all? We believe so, that’s why we’re bringing it. But if it does, how much does it improve?
“If it improves a great amount, that puts us in more battle with other cars, maybe the next, let’s say, solution, we can take more time in the wind tunnel and CFD to make sure that will work.
“But if what we do in Suzuka is making the minimum difference, we might have to take more chances on the second one, right? So it’s all a moving target.
“But at least I’m just trying to put everyone on the same page so that we all understand what we’re dealing with, and what our approaches are.
“But honestly, I am happy with people’s reaction. That’s positive. Then we’ve just got to do it.”
