Haas is putting the brakes on euphoria after the Toyota deal

How quickly will the Toyota deal bring the Haas team forward in the Formula 1 field? In any case, team boss Ayao Komatsu is putting the brakes on the euphoria and says that the advantages resulting from the partnership with the Japanese manufacturer will not be visible “immediately”.

“Like any other partnership, we have to understand each other and then we have to try a few things,” he urges patience.

Toyota is supposed to help Haas, among other things, with the development and construction of some parts of the car, but that also has to take place first, says Komatsu: “We need a few attempts to understand how long it will take and what kind of quality information exchange .” “will be possible,” he says. “We have to learn about each other, and that’s just the outer shell,” he emphasizes.

The new simulator that will be set up at the company’s Banbury factory will not be available overnight either. Komatsu had already indicated that he would not be available at the start of next season.

There is a clear timeline as to when the simulator should be installed, “but once you have installed it, the correlation still needs some time,” said the Japanese.

Simulator with Toyota faster

“I don’t dream that it will immediately make us faster, because that won’t happen,” he clarifies. “But it’s still faster. Even if we could do it ourselves and had the money, it would certainly be much faster if we did it through this technical partnership because they already have the know-how and the people.”

“If we have to recruit people, then a year goes by quickly, right? Even if we also found the hardware, we might be able to get the hardware in a few months, but we still need to recruit people. Then we need to understand them in the “school environment and then the hardware,” he explains.

But with Toyota you could skip these steps: Toyota already has the staff and uses simulators in several locations. This means Haas can also get started quite quickly.

Komatsu warns: Don’t rush!

Komatsu says he was looking for ways to move Haas forward as quickly as possible. He then ended up at Toyota and concluded a deal with them that is helpful for both sides. “That’s how I imagined it,” he says.

“But as with everything, it will take time, and if you want too much too quickly, then everything will fall apart, so we can’t rush anything – even if it’s Formula 1 and therefore a race,” said the team boss .

“We’ll do everything as quickly as possible, but it’s a fine line, so we have to do it right.”