2024-01-12 13:14:14
The appointment of Reio Komatsu as the new team principal of the Haas F1 Team is another example of a career progression from F1 engineer to senior management. Reio Komatsu, who previously served as engineering director, replaced Günter Steiner, who had been Haas F1’s team principal for many years. Günther Steiner himself worked as a mechanic and engineer before assuming leadership roles in F1.
Reio Komatsu was born in January 1976. After graduating from high school, he went to the UK and obtained a bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering and a PhD in vehicle dynamics and control from Loughborough University. Reio Komatsu joined the UK as a tire engineer in 2003. Joined American Racing (BAR). At the time, F1 was still in the ‘tire wars’ era, before switching to sole suppliers. In 2006 Reio Komatsu moved to Renault to work as a performance engineer, starting as a tire engineer on the test team. He was promoted to the race team in 2007 and worked alongside drivers such as Nelson Piquet Jr., Romain Grosjean and Vitaly Petrov. He was promoted to race engineer at Petrov following Mark Slade left the team at the beginning of the 2011 season. The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in this year. Petrov’s name became known when he published a message saying, “My race engineer Ayao’s family remains in Japan.” Romain Grosjean’s right-hand man In 2012, he was Romain Grosjean’s race engineer. He recorded nine podium finishes. After a disappointing 2014, Reio Komatsu was promoted to Chief Race Engineer and helped the team of Grosjean and Enstone to a podium finish at the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix. When Grosjean moved to the fledgling Haas F1 Team in 2016, Reio Komatsu followed him and became trackside engineering director. He considers Grosjean a close friend even following his F1 career ended following a devastating crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. Even following Grosjean left F1, Reio Komatsu remained with the Haas F1 Team and was promoted to the position of Engineering Director, his current position. Reio Komatsu’s promotion means continuity for Haas F1 Team despite the departure of Gunther Steiner. In effect, it’s a move similar to McLaren’s replacement of Andreas Seidl with Andrea Stella (who has experience as both race engineer and trackside chief) as team principal for 2023.
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