Guenther Steiner has been replaced as Haas team principal, with Ayao Komatsu taking over the position.

Steiner has been in charge of Haas since the team’s inception in 2014, overseeing team principal duties for team owner Gene Haas. The team opted to delay its debut season until 2016 but enjoyed a sensational opening few rounds, picking up 22 of its 29 points in the first four races before finishing eighth in the constructors’ championship.

After a best finish of fifth overall in 2018, the popular team boss guided Haas through the COVID-19 pandemic and after a scoreless 2021 the team was again eighth in 2022. However, after slipping to the bottom of the constructors’ championship last season, team owner Haas has decided to replace Steiner with trackside engineering director Komatsu.

“I’d like to start by extending my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future,” Haas said. “Moving forward as an organization it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances. In appointing Ayao Komatsu as team principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.

“We have had some successes, but we need to be consistent in delivering results that help us reach our wider goals as an organization. We need to be efficient with the resources we have but improving our design and engineering capability is key to our success as a team. I’m looking forward to working with Ayao and fundamentally ensuring that we maximize our potential — this truly reflects my desire to compete properly in Formula 1.”

Ayao Komatsu has served as Chief Race Engineer at Haas F1 since its launch, and has now been elevated to the team principal role. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images

Komatsu has also been with Haas since the team first joined the grid, and will be supported in his new role by a European-based chief operations officer that the team says will manage all non-competition matters and departments.

“I’m naturally very excited to have the opportunity to be team principal at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team,” Komatsu said.. “Having been with the team since its track debut back in 2016 I’m obviously passionately invested in its success in Formula 1. I’m looking forward to leading our program and the various competitive operations internally to ensure we can build a structure that produces improved on-track performances.

“We are a performance-based business. We obviously haven’t been competitive enough recently, which has been a source of frustration for us all. We have amazing support from Gene and our various partners, and we want to mirror their enthusiasm with an improved on-track product. We have a great team of people across Kannapolis, Banbury and Maranello and together I know we can achieve the kind of results we’re capable of.”