Nico Hülkenberg has praised new Haas principal Ayao Komatsu’s technical approach to leadership after the team became the first among the backmarkers to score points in the lead-up to the Australian Grand Prix.
Komatsu took the reins of the American-owned team after former boss Guenther Steiner had his contract left unrenewed by owner Gene Haas early this year.
The decision came after an alarming tailing off of performance in 2023, when the team’s sole upgrade for the season failed to fire.
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Under Komatsu’s leadership Haas has adopted a regimented and pragmatic approach to pre-season testing and the early races, focusing on curing the car’s long-running tyre management problems while trying to avoid sacrificing single-lap speed in exchange.
Despite saying he was braced for a slow to the season, the evidence is strong that the strategy is paying off after two rounds of racing.
Speaking to Fox Sports, Hülkenberg said the Japanese engineer’s leadership was right for the times to restore Haas to competitive health.
“He’s obviously an engineer, that’s his background, so his approach is very technical and very performance focused right now, trying to find the shortcuts to the fastest and best-performing car, which is good and is what we need right now,” he said.
“There are differences [to Steiner]. Obviously with him it’s still very early days in his team principal role, so we’ll have to see how later in the year things go in different areas.
“Every person is different. He’s a very different character and personality compared to Guenther … but again, we have the best person at the moment when it comes to what the team needs right now.”
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Hülkenberg said he’d been impressed with how quickly Komatsu had taken to the role, his confirmation coming barely six weeks before the start of pre-season testing.
“He’s doing really well,” he said. “There was not much time from when the news came out that he was promoted to the start of the season, so he’s really been thrown in the deep end, but from what I’ve seen and know so far he’s doing really well.”
Haas moved up to sixth in the championship standings after Hülkenberg finished 10th in Saudi Arabia following the execution of some clever team tactics.
Teammate Kevin Magnussen was deployed to hold up the entire bottom half of the field to build a gap for the German to stop into, securing him a rare place in the points.
Komatsu described it as “gold dust” in a season featuring an enormous divide between the top and bottom five teams that has made scoring points almost impossible for the backmarker group.
“I think it was a positive uplift for the team, a reward for everyone’s work over the winter and for the race team as well,” Hülkenberg said.
“[The car] definitely feels better. It’s early days. We’ve had only two grands prix, but they definitely seemed encouraging and much more positive than what we were having last year on Sundays.
“I still personally want to see a few more races at different tracks to really confirm that, but the way it is now, you have the top five teams which are quite far ahead and then you have the other five teams which are very close together.
“The slightest of margins can make a huge difference in your outcome. It’s highly competitive and very, very tight there in the midfield pack.
“Our aim is to develop the car this year and then to try to close or reduce that gap, but everyone is obviously working at a very high pace and trying to improve their performance.
“The important thing now is: head down, focus and we do the right thing things as a team, especially back in the factory, the aero guys, that they find the performance, which is crucial.”
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Veteran Hülkenberg, in his 11th full-time season, has shaded Magnussen since the pair became teammates last season despite his three years out of the sport.
With Ferrari heavily tipped to place young gun Oliver Bearman at Haas next season, the German is likely to be the team’s first pick to partner the rookie in 2024.
But Hülkenberg’s strong performances have him rumoured to be a bigger piece in the driver market. Speculation has already suggested he could be a target for Sauber, which will become the Audi works team by 2026.
The 36-year-old was optimistic about his future, though he wouldn’t be drawn on whether he considered Haas his first choice.
“That’s definitely also an option and a possibility,” he said when asked if he would be happy to stick with his current team.
“A lot of people are having conversations right now and trying to gauge the market and read the market, anticipating moves. It’s normal.
“I think I’m not in a bad spot, but most important is just to keep performing well on track. That’s the best advertising a driver can do. I look forward to that time actually and to sort out the future in the next couple of weeks or months and see where I end up.”