In a media name final week, Steiner steered that previous to his departure, the wind tunnel numbers already steered that the VF-24 can be aggressive and that the workforce was “mistaken” to take a low-key strategy when predicting its potential kind.
The automotive has already proved able to making Q3 and Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen have made the factors thrice between them, placing the workforce in seventh place within the constructors’ desk.
Komatsu insists that the workforce couldn’t have predicted such potential because it didn’t know the way a lot progress rivals would make.
“I knew how a lot we have been discovering,” he famous in Suzuka on Thursday. “However I’ve obtained to imagine everyone else is discovering not less than the identical or extra as a result of I understand how late we began. I do know we stopped for 2 months to do the Austin improve.
“Then we’re the smallest workforce, proper? It is not like we have extra superior methodology. Now, I am certain everyone else is as intelligent as anyone else, on common.
“So that is what my baseline is. It is not about bullshitting or placing up a smokescreen or something. That is my expectation of actuality.
“And realizing that quantity, I am sorry, nevertheless it’s not an enormous quantity. So, there is not any method I might have thought that may be ok for P7. No method. Then how are you going to anticipate Alpine to do what they did? Would you expect that? No.
“You then can’t financial institution on any person messing it up, you’ve obtained to imagine they’re doing job.”
Photograph by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photos
Komatsu did admit that he downplayed expectations not for the surface world however partially in order that workforce members wouldn’t be upset if Haas remained caught within the tenth place that it achieved in 2023.
“Internally as nicely, I do not need my individuals to see the automotive Bahrain in P10, after which get depressed and get the heads down,” he mentioned.
“As a result of I simply wished to ensure, ‘You guys know what you are doing, you simply did not have sufficient time to place sufficient efficiency on the automotive – it isn’t your fault if we’re P10 in Bahrain.’
“That is the inner message I simply wished to be clear. So I wanted to organize my guys that for Bahrain, after we are final, they do not get depressed about it.
“Then they’ve obtained the grounds to say, ‘Okay, that is the place we will begin, that is the place we will enhance.’
“In order that’s extra inside message for those who like, nevertheless it’s not a bullshit smokescreen. Severely, that was my expectation.”
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photos
Komatsu conceded that the Bahrain check indicated that the VF-24 had potential, regardless of the concentrate on tyre administration relatively than outright efficiency.
“After we did pre-season testing, after day one, day two, our future tempo, I believed we may struggle in opposition to possibly two or three different groups,” he mentioned. “I did not know precisely about how a lot, however someplace round P8, P7.
“However yeah, I solely knew that when we began working. And likewise when it comes to, for example, downforce we generate from the automotive – it is very completely different from what wind tunnel says.
“That inside itself is an issue. However a part of it’s a good shock. Might I predict that, trying on the wind tunnel quantity? No method.”
Requested if the automotive is producing extra downforce than anticipated he mentioned: “I do not notably need to go into element. But it surely’s not like that. It is not linear.
“However sure traits we see on the observe – it is probably not nice on, for example, within the easy quantity, outright quantity, headline quantity, ought to I say – however when it comes to traits, it is far more usable, so the driving force can extract it.
“So for those who’ve obtained like a peaky automotive, a driver can get to the restrict possibly every now and then. However you probably have obtained, for example, a benign automotive – okay, absolute efficiency is much less, however 9 out of ten, he can get there.
“For those who have a look at a race over 305kms, which automotive would you like? In fact, you need a benign automotive. After which this 12 months’s automotive is probably not by design, however on sure elements of the automotive, we obtained that benign automotive.
“In order that’s why drivers can develop confidence from it. Once more, if any person can inform that from the wind tunnel, that is wonderful.”
Watch: F1 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Preview – Every thing You Want To Know
