Haas F1 Team Principal Ayao Komatsu Offers Advice for Wannabe Formula 1 Engineers
So, you want to work in Formula 1, do you?
Maybe you have your dreams set on a job in engineering or even wonder what it might take to be a team boss one day.
Second-year Haas F1 Team Principal Ayao Komatsu, who is at Suzuka this week for the F1 Japanese Grand Prix, has some advice for you.
"When I got interested in Formula 1 when I was a kid, all the others apart from my parents told me: 'Don't be so stupid. You will never make it.' I didn't listen to any of them," the 49-year-old Komatsu said on Friday. "So my advice would be: don't listen to those people who tell you that you cannot do it. You know, you can do pretty much anything, I think, if you put your mind to it and dedicate your life to it."
Komatsu is a Haas F1 Team original, having begin his Haas career as the team's trackside engineering director in 2016. He replaced Guenther Steiner as team principal prior to the start of the 2024 season.
This year, he's overseeing a team with drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman that is sixth in the F1 Constructors' Championship standing heading into Sunday's race.
"I think it's just that sometimes the first step is the hardest one to make, but I hope that people have the courage to make that first step in making the dream," Komatsu said. "Because to me, if you try—even if you fail—it kind of doesn't matter. As long as you put everything into it, even if you don't make it to the original goal, you learn something from it. And then as a human being, you can use that at your next stage in your life.
"So please, just take that initial step."
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