Haas has made appreciable progress on the difficulty that blighted its F1 marketing campaign final yr, which was brought on by a elementary aerodynamic imbalance that meant the VF-23 may get its tyres working effectively for qualifying, however would then chew via them in races.
In making 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 downside via the design adjustments 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 yr 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 mistaken activate the set-up” as he rapidly encountered extreme tyre degradation whereas working within the pack.
After Hulkenberg scored some extent with tenth within the following day’s grand prix, Komatsu defined how his driver’s inconsistent weekend highlighted the ‘fine-margins’ problem Haas remains to be dealing with to keep away from excessive ranges of tyre put on.
When requested if Haas felt the previous 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 example, we anticipated sure issues [in China], we skilled one thing completely different,” he informed Autosport.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24, Valtteri Bottas, Kick Sauber C44
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“You may take a look at Nico’s dash – it is not solely the tyre downside, however a outcome of some mixed components, [but] we killed Nico’s tyre.
“I can not say nonetheless [that] 100% we’re utterly over it. I believe this circuit, with this temperature, after which these compounds uncovered some new areas.
“However as a result of we targeted on that I believe [it’s] one thing we are able to work on to enhance to cowl.
“[If] we come right here once more, we’ll most likely give you barely completely different configurations, which we have not obtained at this minute.”
“When you take a look at Kevin’s [sprint] race – a strong race, completed in P10. However his tempo wasn’t nice.
“The best way Nico dropped again will not be one issue – it is a mixture of things. However you possibly can see how delicate it’s.
“When you get into sure circumstances, 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 – all the pieces, 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 utterly 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 reasonably 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].”