Haas has made appreciable progress on the difficulty that blighted its F1 marketing campaign final 12 months, which was attributable to a basic aerodynamic imbalance that meant the VF-23 may get its tyres working effectively for qualifying, however would then chew by means of them in races.
In getting ready its VF-24 2024 challenger in pre-season testing, Haas spent most of its time in Bahrain finishing long-run efforts in a bid to cut back its tyre drawback by means of the design modifications it had made within the low season.
These appeared to repay, with Hulkenberg scoring within the season’s second spherical and Komatsu having felt “we are able to race this 12 months within the midfield” from the season-opener earlier than Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen doubled up in Australia.
In final weekend’s opening race in Shanghai, Hulkenberg plummeted from a Thirteenth-place beginning spot to complete final, blaming “a improper activate the set-up” as he rapidly encountered extreme tyre degradation whereas operating within the pack.
After Hulkenberg scored a degree with tenth within the following day’s grand prix, Komatsu defined how his driver’s inconsistent weekend highlighted the ‘fine-margins’ problem Haas continues to be dealing with to keep away from excessive ranges of tyre put on.
When requested if Haas felt the outdated tyre state of affairs had been totally solved or if Hulkenberg’s dash state of affairs had caught it abruptly, Komatsu replied: “I would not say it is gone, gone”.
“As an illustration, we anticipated sure issues [in China], we skilled one thing totally different,” he advised Autosport.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24, Valtteri Bottas, Kick Sauber C44
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“You’ll be able to take a look at Nico’s dash – it is not solely the tyre drawback, however a end result of some mixed elements, [but] we killed Nico’s tyre.
“I can’t say nonetheless [that] 100% we’re fully over it. I feel this circuit, with this temperature, after which these compounds uncovered some new areas.
“However as a result of we centered on that I feel [it’s] one thing we are able to work on to enhance to cowl.
“[If] we come right here once more, we’ll in all probability provide you with barely totally different configurations, which we have not obtained at this minute.”
“When you take a look at Kevin’s [sprint] race – a stable race, completed in P10. However his tempo wasn’t nice.
“The way in which Nico dropped again is just not one issue – it is a mixture of things. However you possibly can see how delicate it’s.
“When you get into sure situations, situations, if you do not have the margin to maintain the tyres in state, that is what can occur.
“So then, studying from that, we have to have a automobile – every little thing, set-up configuration, driving – to offer ourselves a bit extra margin in order that if sure conditions occur, the tyres not gonna die [and] we’re not fully out of it.”
Komatsu added that “it is good that we put it proper for this [main] race” through returning to a earlier set-up association Haas knew would work for the tyres over longer stints somewhat than some “slight variations” it tried that “truly made the automobile worse”, as Hulkenberg was referring too.
He concluded: “Nico’s [GP] tempo, it wasn’t superb, however nonetheless, it is fairly good [to score a point].”