Haas F1 team principal Ayao Komatsu was full of praise for the team after their “fantastic” work to turn around the reliability issues that disrupted their testing week on Wednesday, the second of three days they were allowed to run in the 2026 Barcelona ‘shakedown’.
After a very impressive start on Monday, with Esteban Ocon clocking 154 laps, the team had a stuttering Wednesday – after opting out of Tuesday, due to rain – with two separate reliability issues setting them back on the second day.
Komatsu reveals reliability setbacks for Haas in 2026 F1 Barcelona shakedown
In the morning, Ollie Bearman experienced what Komatsu described as a “small issue” which left him stranded on track. With a “more serious” stoppage in the late afternoon that put an early end to the Briton’s running, who was set to run for the entire day. He completed just 42 laps in total.
“We’d sorted out so many issues from Monday, so when we were running on track today, I could see a huge step forward compared to day one,” Komatsu said on Wednesday. “That’s a big positive for us. Unfortunately, in both the morning and afternoon sessions, we had two reliability issues.
“I’m not worried about the one we had [in the] morning, [but] the one in the afternoon was a bit more serious,” he admitted. “And it’s obviously something we’re looking into, and analysing exactly what happened – and of course, how to solve it.”
Whilst the exact nature of the failures is still unclear, they were not power unit related issues, which further compliments Ferrari’s new engine and its impressive reliability in the shakedown.
Komatsu: “Brilliant” work by Haas F1 mechanics to turn it around on Friday
Haas missed Thursday running and focused on solving those issues, with Komatsu saying that some parts had to be modified and sent to the track with very late notice, as he praised the “very good job” from the mechanics to get the VF-26 turned around in time to be the first out of the pits on the final day of running in Barcelona:
“Yeah, it was a very, very good morning,” he said after Friday’s morning session. “We had a reliability issue on Wednesday, but again the guys done a very, very good job to get that modification done.
“We received the [new] parts last night quite late, and then the preparation of the car late in the evening and overnight was brilliant.
“So we [were] ready to go out at 9 o’clock on the dot, and then we stuck to our program. So we learnt a lot this morning, [and] all is being fantastic. The guys worked really well, so [I’m] really happy this morning.”
Ollie Bearman completed an impressive 105 laps for the morning session, before handing over to Esteban Ocon capped off a very productive Friday for Haas F1, completing 85 laps in the afternoon.
Komatsu: Haas F1 in “good state” for Bahrain testing after 2026 Barcelona shakedown
Haas ended the shakedown as the fourth-best team in terms of total mileage covered, which can be crucial in an such a massive regulation overhaul, as every laps counts for filling the knowledge bank for teams and drivers as to how to optimise the new machinery in qualifying and in race trim:
“We’re just constantly learning about the car, there is this new regulations on both the PU side and chassis side.
“It’s a big change [to] how you get the performance out of the car, how to be consistent both in let’s say a one lap qualifying type of preparation, and in sustained [race] running.
“So every time we are learning a lot, [and] everything we learn here puts us in a good state for the next Bahrain testing.
“So we are really happy with the progress we made this morning.”
Friday running “multiple steps ahead” compared to Monday
When asked about the drivers’ feedback, Komatsu highlighted significant progress since day one, noting the team has made the VF-26 run more “consistently” and pushed it “multiple steps ahead” compared to the start of the week.
“I mean now the car’s running much more, let’s say, in a window consistently,” he said. “We can feel ‘okay, what’s the next step we need to improve?’, so we are honing in on the areas that we can focus on.
“I’m sure when we solve that issue, there’ll be another issue, but it’s just a step-by-step normal process.
“But Ollie [Bearman] has done a really good job this morning, and the guys done a good job [getting the car ready.
“So I think Esteban [Ocon] when he jumps in the car now, it’s a clear step ahead; we are multiple steps ahead compared to what he’s [experienced] on Monday. And hopefully if we can make a good similar step this afternoon. That’d be a really good preparation for Bahrain.”
Quality, not quantity the priority now
As the team looks ahead to Bahrain testing in less than a fortnight’s time, Komatsu explained the team will focus on improving and more importantly learning about the new cars in the meantime, focusing not only on improving the mileage count, but also the quality of those laps and the data it generates for the engineers to work through:
“We’ve got a huge amount of data to look at,” he said. “Again, aero characteristics are very, very different, on the PU side as well there’s lots to digest.
“So we got a week to digest everything and improve in principle Bahrain. In terms of generating data, this kind of running of doing more than 100 laps in the morning, it’s very, very important.
“But not just quantity, you know, the quality was much better this morning as well.”
