Ayao Komatsu gave a lowdown of the title sponsorship with Toyota Gazoo Racing and Haas, which was announced before the F1 finale in Abu Dhabi.
Having become partners to share expertise a year ago, Haas and Toyota Gazoo Racing decided to extend its partnership to title sponsorship level from F1 2026 onward, with the departure of MoneyGram. It is not to be mistaken as a works status, but a deal built of technical sharing.
There is no big change from the previous contract apart from financial increase and a better Testing Previous Car programme as Haas team boss Komatsu said. The Japanese noted that there is no power unit or chassis programme, but only expertise chare and a TPC run.
He also highlighted Toyota’s wish to develop a young talent who can make it in F1. They don’t want to put anyone in the car as it will be termed as ‘pay driver’ situation, but they want the proper route. On simulator side, Komtasu noted that Haas is using the Colonge facility for some of their work.
The manufacturing on Dallara side has continued and there is no interference from Toyota on the deal Haas has with Ferrari. Komatsu stressed that the Japanese manufacturer always wanted to be certain that their contract is not to hurt anything that the American team has with the Italian manufacturer.
Toyota new deal –
Komatsu: “It’s an extension, really. We’ve been having a really good year since we announced the partnership last year, so it’s still just an extension. Immediately, well, other than obviously the sponsorship value, the immediate difference, I think, it’s just going to be a bit more structured, if you like, and even like doing TPC, we’ve been doing TPC, but that was the first year, so next year it’s going to be a bit more structured in terms of our driver development programme, so just everything’s going to be more developed, if you like. Yeah, for sure, but I don’t think internally, maybe externally, obviously a Toyota partnership may mean that, but internally, even without Toyota sponsorship, that was always the case [for Haas to grow]. Toyota’s objective is not really a branding, Toyota’s objective is to make us competitive, grow people, and make this team competitive together, so it will accelerate that.
“Obviously having a Toyota partnership means the next step, but in terms of what we’re doing, it’s not like direction changes, step changes, it’s exactly going in the same direction, but it’s really nice that now we’ve got this title partnership, it’s been a long term collaboration from the beginning anyway, but mainly more for external, it gives people confidence, or even internal as well, but in terms of actually what we’re doing inside, other than the difference in value of sponsorship, it doesn’t change a huge amount, we always had a long term collaboration, honestly branding is not the purpose of this, it’s really trying to make the team more competitive.”
Esteban Ocon: “It’s fantastic. Ayao told me that we’re going to have TPC, we’re going to have some good stuff coming in. When I signed, he didn’t tell me the reasons why there was, but everything was holded and we had much more than what the team had before. It is great news, yes. Toyota is a brand that I really enjoy working with. I’m not saying that because they are working with us. I’m really meaning it. They have great values, they have great respect. They are passionate about racing.
“They are petrolheads, basically. That’s so cool to see when we visited them in Japan. They’ve put us on the gravel track, they’ve put us on the craziest track I’ve ever seen on the road. They’ve made me test the WRC car in Goodwood. It’s fantastic to work with them. I really, really like it. I think this next year is really going to step up in terms of involvement and what we are going to do together. It’s awesome.”
Works team scene –
Komatsu: “I think it’s easy for many people to say that, because I think people want to say things like, Toyota works, Toyota’s going to make engines, but between Akio-san and myself, it’s totally clear, the purpose of this collaboration is really trying to grow people, and through doing that, we make a competitive organisation. If you look at Formula 1 as an environment, if somebody wants to train people, or throw people into a very competitive environment, or international environment, there’s nothing better than Formula 1. I think the amazing thing about this is, it’s very international, incredibly competitive and let’s say in the corporate world, certain things take, let’s say for argument’s sake, three months to develop, in Formula 1 we solved it in two weeks, so in terms of training people, I don’t think you’ll find anything better.
“That’s where I think our synergy comes from, we are looking for people, Akio-san was looking for the environment, where he can train and grow his own people. I think in the long run, for Toyota Motor Corporation, it’s not just for this racing, the people they grew, trained in this environment, will one day hopefully be a senior manager, or top management in the TMC, in the international mindset, competitive mindset. So I think it’s just a lot more than just about, are they going to make a PU, are they going to make a, are they going to be the Toyota F1 Works team, that’s really, really not the target, but I know I get asked this question every time, but that’s not the case.”
Cologne sim, Dallara –
Komatsu: “Yeah, we’re doing some work with Toyota TGRE in Cologne, about manufacturing work, but then again, it’s not our, let’s say, objective, to use TGRE is not the objective, objective is to look at, okay, business collaboration, what are the areas we can help each other, or Toyota can help us, in terms of making this team more competitive, and the most obvious one we’ve been doing, is honestly TPC, that’s been brilliant, we never had the chance to have that team, have that environment, to train people, and then to have that, is amazing, and we’ve done, how many days have we done this year, I think we’ve done like 15, 14 days, next year, I don’t know if we’re going to do 20 days or not, but the program is going to be much more structured, and developed.
“And then in terms of Cologne, they’ve got the facilities, they’ve got the people, so if there’s a project that can benefit from that one, of course we’ll use it, it’s great that we’ve got access, but it’s not like, ‘oh, we’ve got Cologne facility, we’ve got to use it, it’s the other way around’. Not necessarily, like even before this partnership, certain key components are made by Dallara, but we have lots of other components made by different external suppliers, so we’re shifting some of that, and also like, we’re treating it more like a, let’s say, extended internal design office, in a way, so we’ve got to understand more about certain components to have an internal capability, so we’re doing some study on that, or work on that.”
Progress on simulator –
Komatsu: “Yeah, I think the Banbury one, I think it’s going to be up and running around May, June time, but they’ve got another one in Enstone, so we’re just doing our proof of concept model integration stuff in parallel with the Enstone one, so once we’ve got the physical one installed in Banbury, we can just go. And that’ll be immediately usable around then for set-up work, but it should be immediately OK as soon as it’s installed, because we’re doing it in parallel. It is very important, because we’ve got access to a Ferrari simulator in Maranello.
“But of course it’s not great because most of our engineering team is in the UK, and then the days are limited and it’s in Italy, so logistically it’s been pretty difficult, so ideally I wanted to have it at least half a year earlier, because next year’s regulation, I think the simulator is going to be even more important, so we can’t have that access straight away, but it’s going to be really, really key, and then it’s a milestone for the team to be able to do that.”
Toyota-backed driver –
Komatsu: “Yeah, of course, their goal, one of many goals they have is to, like we say, developing people, one of them is driver, so, but main thing is performance is first, anybody who gets in our race car, has to be the best choice, in terms of performance, so, we all clear on that one, even from Akio-san, even though he wanted, let’s say, a Japanese driver from his academy, it becomes a joke, if we put in that driver when he’s not good enough, right? Then you say, then people will say, ‘oh, Toyota’s just buying us into his money’, that’s not what Akio-san’s doing, that’s not what we’re doing, we always pick driver, due to our performance.”
No change in Ferrari collab –
Komatsu: “No, no, it really doesn’t change, like I said, from day one, our existence, really is the foundation, of Ferrari, without Ferrari collaboration, we’re not going to be here, and then to be fair, it’s really for you to know, it’s good like, when we are increasing, or even the very first time, last year, one of the first question, Akio-san asked me, ‘is which Ferrari’s going to be, okay with this?’, so, it’s not like, Toyota’s trying to step into where Ferrari’s working with us.
“There’s a certain area, obviously, in the regulation that Ferrari can help us, but certain areas, in the regulation that Ferrari can help us, because they are our competitor and those are the areas where we are working together with Toyota TGR, so there’s no issue in that regard at all. And then I’ve been completely transparent, with Ferrari as well and again, Akio-san, for somebody like chairman of TMC, have a first thing he says is, ‘I don’t want to create any mess, with Ferrari, so, he’s a great guy’.”
Here’s news from Haas on Toyota
