The sacking of former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner was at the forefront of the new over the week, but another man also silently made his exit from the outfit as Gene Haas looks to restructure the team.
Simone Resta, who had arrived at Haas on loan from Ferrari, has left the team and is expected to link up with the Scuderia ahead of the upcoming season.
Haas has had a bitterly disappointing spell in F1, with the American team finishing last in two of the previous three seasons. This was enough for owner Gene Haas to decide to shuffle things up.
It is believed that there was some ‘friction’ mounting in the Haas camp well before the decision to sack Steiner was formalised. The fact that Steiner, who has been at the helm since the entry of the team almost a decade ago, wasn’t even allowed a comment in the press release speaks volumes in itself.
Resta joined Haas in 2021 as technical director, but the position was always believed to be a ‘loan deal’ with partners Ferrari. While he was the chief designer of Haas, Resta regularly found himself involved in external assignments given by Ferrari.
Although he occupied such an important role at Haas, Resta often found himself burdened with the responsibility of spearheading the technical part of Alfa Romeo’s charge.
The official F1 website has confirmed that Resta will now return to Ferrari in a full-time capacity, but the role he will serve is still unknown.
“Sources say Resta does not yet have a defined role at the Scuderia, who also operate a sportscar programme and automotive business out of their Maranello headquarters,” the report .
While Resta has not been replaced at Haas just yet, it is believed that this position is currently not of utmost importance to the team. They have instead focused on replacing Steiner for the time being with an internal promotion granted to Ayao Komatsu.
Komatsu gets internal promotion at Haas
The 47-year-old Japanese engineer has been a regular feature in the Haas paddock and also has a wealth of experience in F1, having been with the team since 2016.
Gene Haas explained why hiring Komatsu was appealing, despite having the likes of Mattia Binotto, Jost Capito and Otmar Szafnauer on the sidelines.
“Moving forward as an organization it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances,” Haas said.
“In appointing Ayao Komatsu as team principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.”
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