Kevin Magnussen had a tough time during the race in Jeddah. First, he got a penalty for touching Alex Albon’s car. Then, he passed Yuki Tsunoda while driving off the track, which got him another penalty.
After that, Magnussen was told by his team to slow down so his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, could get ahead without any trouble. This move upset some other teams, with Red Bull calling it “unsportsmanlike” and Albon saying it was “cheeky.”
Komatsu, from Haas, admitted that they didn’t realize Magnussen went off-track to pass Tsunoda. He said they should have known and told Magnussen to give back the place.
He explained, “We should have known that as a team. Kevin should have given the position back to himself. But if he didn’t, we should have told him to do it.”
However, Komatsu defended Magnussen’s tactic of slowing down to help Hulkenberg. He said they already had a penalty, so Magnussen couldn’t fight for points anyway.
Komatsu added, “What we did was our only chance to score points with Nico. Any team would have done the same.”
He strongly disagreed with anyone calling their strategy unsportsmanlike, saying it was nonsense.
Komatsu admitted they made a mistake and promised to have more people watching the race closely from their base. This way, they can catch any unfair moves by their drivers and correct them immediately.
He said, “We’re putting more people to watch our drivers and listen to what’s happening with other teams. We need to learn from our mistakes and make sure they don’t happen again.”
Haas will have more support staff watching the race closely to avoid similar issues. They may not have as many resources as bigger teams, but they’re determined to do better.
Also read: Steiner’s Departure: Reflecting on Haas F1 Team’s Challenges
