Haas boss quizzed on sales pitch to Esteban Ocon in light of Toyota deal

Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu has revealed he never told 2025 signing Esteban Ocon about the Toyota partnership as it was not guaranteed at the time of their talks.

Haas completed their 2025 driver line-up in late July, confirming Ocon as Oliver Bearman’s team-mate in a multi-year deal.

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The Frenchman, who will be leaving Alpine after five years with the Enstone squad, spoke at the time about Haas’ “upward trajectory” under new team boss Komatsu.

Calling it an “exciting challenge”, he added: “Obviously I have a very long history with Ayao, who’s been my first race engineer in Formula 1 – 10 years ago now – and he’s convinced me of his plan on where they want to head to.

“I’ve got the same goal as they have, so it is fantastic to finally be teaming up.”

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But while Komatsu was convincing the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix winner, he never once told him of Haas’ talks with Toyota about a technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing.

The Japanese team boss says that’s because he didn’t want to make promises he may not be able to fulfill.

Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, on Friday after Haas confirmed their new multi-year deal with Toyota Gazoo Racing, he was asked if the Toyota deal was part of his sales pitch to the F1 driver.

“Not specifically,” Komatsu said. “I did say to him we have a development plan to take this team forward and to make a reasonable step change, if you like.

“But the point where I was trying to finalise Esteban’s contract which was around Austria time, it was too early for me to guarantee anything to Esteban.

“I never wanted to tell Esteban something that I cannot guarantee and then he signed from that understanding and then I cannot tell Esteban three months later ‘sorry mate, I couldn’t make it happen’.

“He signed with the understanding that there’s a vision to take this team forward, and instead of being specific about this technical partnership, I told him how we are planning to develop the team, and then he was very much on board with that idea.”

Speaking about the American team’s new partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing, which will begin at the upcoming United States Grand Prix, Komatsu believes the Japanese company has the resources to help Haas work towards a maiden F1 podium.

“We are the smallest team on the grid and we’re lacking certain resources and hardware capability to understand certain things,” said Komatsu.

“And then in terms of being more competitive in the midfield, we are looking for somebody who can give us more resources, that horsepower, and also have the hardware and the know-how to use that hardware.

“And Toyota Gazoo Racing gives exactly that. They have a great facility in Cologne, so we will be able to utilise that also.

“F1 is a high technology sport, but really what matters is people, personnel. So we both would like to educate, trying develop our personnel in a F1 environment to be a mutual benefit to each other.

“So lots of let’s say objectives that are coherent in each other’s organisations. So that’s why that was the key in deciding to go for this technical partnership.”

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