Haas has made appreciable progress on the difficulty that blighted its F1 marketing campaign final 12 months, which was brought on by a basic aerodynamic imbalance that meant the VF-23 might get its tyres working effectively for qualifying, however would then chew by 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 scale back its tyre drawback by 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 will 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 mistaken activate the set-up” as he shortly encountered extreme tyre degradation whereas working within the pack.
After Hulkenberg scored some extent with tenth within the following day’s GP, Komatsu defined how his driver’s inconsistent weekend highlighted the fantastic margins problem Haas continues to be going through 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 without warning, Komatsu replied: “I would not say it is gone, gone”.
“For example, we anticipated sure issues [in China], we skilled one thing completely different,” he informed Motorsport.com.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24, Valtteri Bottas, Kick Sauber C44
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photos
“So, you may take a look at Nico’s dash – it isn’t solely the tyre drawback, however a consequence of some mixed elements, [but] we killed Nico’s tyre.
“So, I can not say nonetheless [that] 100% we’re utterly over it. I feel this circuit, with this temperature, after which these compounds uncovered some new areas.
“However as a result of we targeted on that I feel [it’s] one thing we will work on to enhance to cowl.
“[If] we come right here once more, we’ll in all probability give you barely completely different configurations, which we have not bought at this minute.”
“Should you take a look at Kevin’s [sprint] race – a stable race, completed in P10. However his tempo wasn’t nice.
“The best way Nico dropped again is just not one issue – it is a mixture of things. However you may see how delicate it’s.
“Should you get into sure situations, eventualities, 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 then have a automotive – every part, set-up configuration, driving – to provide 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 slightly than some “slight variations” it tried that “truly made the automotive worse”, as Hulkenberg was referring too.
“Nico’s [GP] tempo, it wasn’t wonderful, however nonetheless, it is fairly good [to score a point],” he concluded.