Now that Haas arguably lost one of its main public faces afterchoosing not to renew the contract of Team Principal, GuentherSteiner, should the team consider other options for its Formula 1future? Team owner, Gene Haas, has elected to promote technicalengineering director Ayao Komatsu into the hot seat as they look toimprove on their season of unfulfilled potential in 2023.Individuals within an F1 team have the power to make a massiveimpact on performance, as was the case with McLaren's Andrea Stellawho CEO Zak Brown credited for their mid-season turn around.Komatsu, a relatively anonymous figure save for a few Team Radiomessages when he was Romain Grosjean's race engineer, believes theycan pull off a similar job and turn the Ferrari b-spec team into agenuine contender. Andretti name carries more heritage The breakupbetween Steiner and Haas has undoubtedly been a messy one, notleast due to him being informed that his contract would not berenewed on the week between Christmas and New Years - talk aboutbrutal. But the reality for the only US F1 team on the grid is theyare further away than they've ever been from achieving podiums, andposing a credible threat to the established order. This is perhapswhere Michael Andretti and the merry men of Cadillac could comeinto play, as F1 and the FIA attempt to resolve the politicalproblem with letting an 11th team on the grid. Tensions betweenexisting teams and the governing body have been high in the last 12months, largely because the former stands to lose a considerableamount of money from the existing prize pot by a grid expansion.Andretti already tried to buy Sauber when it looked at options forjoining the grid, and with Haas already having operations in NorthCarolina this could be the next phase for America's F1 entry. TheAndretti family is arguably less 'anonymous' than Haas, whose namestruggles to command the same aurora as Frank Williams, PeterSauber, or Bruce McLaren, or Jack Brabham. It would solve F1's 11thteam problem, however it would be at the expense of a much-neededexpansion to 22-car grid. Whatever the outcome, could you see Haasselling up to Andretti?