Ayao Komatsu was not asked, specifically, about the driver he no longer has. But at the Japanese Grand Prix team principals' press conference, the Haas boss found a way to talk about Nico Hulkenberg anyway — and what he said has been read around the paddock as the fullest public tribute the understated Japanese engineer has ever paid to a driver.
Hulkenberg left Haas at the end of 2025 to take the lead seat at Audi's works F1 entry, partnering Gabriel Bortoleto. Komatsu inherited Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon in his place. On paper it was a clean transition; in practice, Komatsu made clear that he still thinks of Hulkenberg as something close to a benchmark.
"His attitude is very, very positive," Komatsu said, when the conversation pivoted briefly to driver development. "He brings the best out of people around him as well — engineers, mechanics, everyone. That's a very important quality. Even when there's, let's say, sometimes — he's a very positive guy who brings the best out of the team."
It was the kind of soft praise that most principals offer about any past driver. But Komatsu kept going, and in a way he had not about Hulkenberg during his actual Haas tenure.
"He takes a step every single time," Komatsu continued. "You saw how much he improved throughout last year, right? As we said, his speed's never been in doubt. Then you saw the consistency improvement towards the end of last year."
Inside Haas, those sentences would not have surprised anyone. The team's internal debriefs had identified Hulkenberg's second-half 2025 form as the single biggest reason Haas had ended the season ahead of Alpine and within touching distance of Williams. What has surprised senior paddock figures is how publicly Komatsu is now saying it — at the exact moment his former driver is in a rival overall.
Hulkenberg's 2026 Audi start has been mixed. The C46 is quick in a straight line and demonstrably short on downforce in medium-speed corners. In Suzuka he qualified 12th, ahead of Bortoleto, and ran briefly in the points before a late-race scrap with a recovering Lance Stroll knocked him back. His radio, broadcast in the post-race compilation, contained one of the more quotable lines of the weekend: "Was supposed to get him, but yeah, at the end like this was too difficult. Was a very impressive race. Nico, you were quick today."
For Haas, the loss is structural. Komatsu built the 2025 programme around Hulkenberg's ability to translate engineering feedback into lap time. The team signed Bearman and Ocon on the bet that Hulkenberg's culture would persist even as the driver did not. The Suzuka weekend — in which Bearman crashed heavily in Q1 and Ocon ran quietly outside the points — has intensified internal questions about whether that bet is working.
Komatsu's answer, in public at least, is to keep pointing to what Hulkenberg built rather than what was lost. "It's overall togetherness of the team," he said. "Everybody here knows that preparing for this brand new regulation has been a huge challenge, and for us being the smallest team it's been even more of a challenge. But we know what we are lacking. We know what we can do."
There is a quieter subtext. In 2026, the two drivers Haas wishes most to beat are, in a sense, its own former self: the Hulkenberg model of steady development at a budget-cap minnow, which is exactly the formula Audi is now trying to copy. Komatsu was asked whether the five-week break would help his current drivers find that same rhythm.
"We doing obviously parallel work," he said. "You know, one obviously making best of what we got, but at the same time we are in the process — there's a tremendous amount to do."
It is hard, reading that sentence, not to think of the driver who used to do exactly that for him.
Source: youtube.com