Gene Haas Will Continue To Invest Money Into Haas F1 Team Says The Team Principal

After going through some changes in the positions of team principal and technical director, who both left the team during the winter break, Haas F1 Team started the 2024 season better than the previous few. Currently seventh in the championship, it seems like the only American team on the grid could slowly get themselves together. Because let’s be honest – not finishing higher than eight in the championship since 2018, with being last multiple times, is not the best performance.

With all this, and the famous scenes in the Netflix series Drive to Survive where the ex team boss, Guenther Steiner, was calling the team’s founder, president and sole stockholder, Gene Haas, after every bad race… Well, it could raise some questions about whether the man wants to continue to fund the team that often seems to fail to match the competition.

However, the newly appointed team principal, Ayao Komatsu, cleared the air out and assured the fans that Gene Haas isn’t planning on withdrawing his money from the team or anything similar. Though he’s certainly expecting Haas to not waste a penny he invests in it.

“Gene’s message from day one was absolutely clear: he said he’s got money, he is ready to invest it. But we’ve got to show him we can use the money responsibly, efficiently.”

“He doesn’t want to see the waste. There’s a reason he’s a billionaire, right? He doesn’t like to waste money, right?”

“So when I looked at it, then there are so many areas we can improve. So that’s why I wasn’t too worried about his initial message: ‘Come on, you guys need to show me you are using my money responsibly, then get to a certain position, then I think about the investment’.”

“But I know for a fact that he’ll really invest when we get to that stage. And already he’s commissioned a new motorhome for next year, which is not a small investment. So we are doing that.”

“And also we are now recruiting reasonably – from our size of people, a decent chunk of new recruitments are approved. So yes, Gene is now actioning what he told me. So I’m not worried that he’s not going to invest. He will invest. But we got to do our part, which is to use his money responsibly.”

Komatsu also revealed that the plan to invest into the new motorhome was approved even before the promising start of this season, which shows Gene’s further commitment to the cause. In the end, it seems that Haas doesn’t have to worry about needing to get money elsewhere, but can focus on delivering a pleasing performance in the twenty races we have left on the 2024 F1 calendar.

About this, the team principal said they’ll be “absolutely” outpaced by other teams when the upgrades come – though let’s not forget that before the start of the season, Komatsu insisted Haas will be last in the championship. And look, they’re not! Perhaps it’s a method to not give fans too much hope, because if the expectations aren’t high, you can only pleasantly surprise.

Will Haas manage to do that? Well, that’s a question everybody – and Gene Haas probably most of all – would like to know an answer to.