F1 Team Principal trend emerging after Steiner sacking

With the promotion of Ayao Komatsu to the Team Principal role atthe Haas Formula 1 squad, the Kannapolis-based outfit is continuinga recurring trend seen in the sport over the last several years.Komatsu comes from an engineering background and often, thesefigures play a key role in the background to ensure the team'ssuccess. While responsible for the car’s performance, they are notnecessarily the spokesperson for their team or directly bear theweight of the responsibility to perform at a high level. Haas hasnot been operating satisfactorily over the past several seasons asit has found itself finishing the campaign rooted to the bottom ofthe Constructors’ Championship twice in the last three years. As ameasure to initiate change, Guenther Steiner has been ousted asteam boss after a decade of leadership. Rather than lookexternally, Haas promoted from within and has now tasked Komatsuwith spearheading a climb up the pecking order. Although Steinercomes from an engineering background (albeit not finishing hisdegree), Komatsu has been central to Haas’ technical operation forthe last eight years while it has been present on the F1 grid.Taking that knowledge to the forefront of the team is vital for thesquad and its desire for growth, as team owner Gene Haas explained.“I think Guenther had more of a human-type approach to everythingwith people and the way he interacted with people, he was very goodat that,” Haas told Formula1.com . “Ayao is very technical, helooks at things based on statistics – this is what we’re doing bad,where can we do better. It’s a different approach. We really doneed something different because we weren’t really doing thatwell.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv_xXsqg980 The continuingtrend Toto Wolff and Christian Horner, who are perhaps F1’s mostwell-known current team bosses in their roles at Mercedes and RedBull respectively, do not come from engineering backgrounds. Wolffis strictly a businessman while also a former racer, while Hornertried his hand in racing before switching focus to team management.The duo are long embedded in their respective teams and haveoverseen monumental success across the last 15 years. However manyof the team leaders, particularly those who have been hired morerecently, come directly from an engineering upbringing. After itsfirst campaign running under the guise of Aston Martin, theSilverstone-based squad hired Mike Krack from BMW to run the team,a decision that seems to have worked out admirably following itsleap up the pecking order in 2023. Similarly, McLaren’s promotionof Andrea Stella to the Team Principal role from his position asRacing Director coincided with a strong season of development forthe Woking-based outfit that saw it rise from back-of-the-gridcompetition to consistent podium-scoring form. Last year was alsothe debut season for James Vowles in a Team Principal role afterthe Briton departed Mercedes for the opportunity. While Vowles hasstated that this season will be a true test of his input due to hislate arrival in the construction of last year’s car, Williams’mindset is clear - a technical behemoth to look after the revamp ofthe former World Champions. Even AlphaTauri, Red Bull’s sisterteam, is looking to the expertise of Laurent Mekies this yearfollowing the retirement of Franz Tost at the end of last season.What next for Haas? It will be a very different Haas team that isfielded when the season gets underway at the beginning of March.The Team Principal embodies the personality of the team, aside fromthe drivers, as they are the personnel who face the most mediaattention throughout the campaign. Perhaps it says quite a lot thatSteiner is known more for his viral clips of swearing than anythingthe team has produced on the track. It’s true that Steiner can becredited for placing the limelight on the Haas team through hiscomedic values amid a period in which results have failed to see itbecome engaged in competitive conversations. Changing the teamleader means implementing alterations that will trickle downthrough the organisation. A new way of thinking, a new way ofoperating and a new way of working. The end result must be a liftfrom the difficult position Haas currently finds itself in at thebottom of the championship. And for a first-time Team Principal inKomatsu, a tall task lies ahead of him to overcome such achallenge. But by pairing the Japanese engineer’s extensivetechnical knowledge with his experience in the team, Haas hopes itshomegrown architect will soon reap rewards.