The Rise of Haas (from F1: Chequered Flag)

Hi, TMS listeners. My name is Izzy Hammond, and I'm part of the F1 Checkered Flag family this season, the BBC's Formula 1 podcast. Every week of the F1 season, the Checkered Flag team bring previews and expert analysis of every race, interviews with the sport's biggest names, and exclusive insight into the twists and turns of the F1 season. Now, I know the cricketing year is well underway with the start of the county championship and the IPL in full swing, but we wanted to jump into the TMS feed today to give you a taster of our podcast. The Formula 1 season is currently on an unprecedented break, so that's given us the chance to visit some of the teams, including Haas, which is where we are for this episode, speaking with their team principal, Iyo Komatsu. So whether you're a huge F1 fan or new to the sport, this is a great time to join us. If you like what you hear, search F1 on BBC Sounds and make sure to subscribe to get the latest episode from us every week.

To deal with these huge regulation changes, monumental task. So yeah, I wasn't expecting us to be sitting where we are now. That was a big, big accident. You know, the speed data was huge. But these guys are athletes and then the safety standards of these Formula 1 cars has come leaps. It's unbelievable. So yeah, it was amazing that he walked out from such a big accident.

Should we talk about some hot takes?

Should we do some hot takes?

Oh, how's that for a segue?

Okay, I will do the first one for you. This is from Alex. Red Bull are in a spiral, losing GP. Future team principal, question mark?

Izzy Hammond, we're in this enforced break. No racing in April. We've got to wait till Miami in May.

Yes.

I was getting a bit bored. Me too. So I thought I'd take us to Haas. Lovely place, is it?

Yeah, it's a lovely place to be.

You know what? We're going to go in straight away because we found the team boss, Ayakamatsu. Hello, Ayah.

Hello there. How are you?

Very well. How are you?

Yeah, good, thank you.

Good. No, I mean, Let's go straight into it because we've had 3 races. You're 4th in the Constructors' Championship, and I know you're also a Coventry City fan, right? And they look like they're on the cusp of getting promotion. You must be on cloud nine right now. You must be riding high. What a start to the year.

No, no, honestly, start of the year has been fantastic because it's a huge, huge challenge for everyone, especially for teams like us. We are still the smallest team in the F1 grid to be— to deal with these huge regulation changes. Monumental task. So yeah, I wasn't expecting us to be sitting where we are now, but it's just really credit to everyone's very hard work, not just over the winter, for the previous years.

It seems like you've dealt with the new changes and the new regulations really, really well. Your two drivers, you've got Ocon and Bearman. What's it like working with the two of them?

Ah, no, really good. No, really enjoy it. I think we got a really good team. And then, you know, both drivers, they understand, you know, what they need to do for the team. And then you can see on the track, you know, how they they work together and they're not just on the track, in the behind the scenes, or working with engineers, simulators, anything. You know, they're really a part of the team and they are the central part of the team and driving us forward.

Now, for those who can't see us, we are in the Haas race base. There's a bit of pit stop practice going on and I'm all suited up. I've got the full gear on. So there's a bit of pressure on Ocon and Bearman, don't you think? If they don't perform, I'm ready to roll.

If you can fit in, yes. I think that's a challenge.

That is a challenge. You may fit in, but you may not get out. Well, you've got— Esteban and Ollie, I'm not going to get out. They're quite tall for drivers on the grid, aren't they?

They're very tall, but they're not very wide.

Well, okay, rude. Wow. Wow.

I love that.

That's all we've got time for with Aikomatsu, I'm afraid. Absolute pleasure. Wish you all the best for Coventry City. Unbelievable. Okay, back to serious chat. Speak of Ollie Bearman. Last time we saw you guys in action, Japan had that big crash. How is he? First of all, is he okay? And how is that affecting sort of preparations for the next race?

No, no, he's okay. That was a big, big accident. You know, the speed there was huge. But no, no, I'm saying these guys are athletes and then the safety standards of these Formula 1 cars has come leaps. It's unbelievable. So yeah, it was amazing that he walked out from such a big accident, but he's fine. He's recovering, he's rehabilitating and he's getting ready for Miami. He'll be fine.

Yeah, it's really impressive because he was sort of limping as he got out, but then he was pretty quick to come on social media and say he's absolutely fine, which is, I mean, it's quite impressive. Speak in Spanish.

Yeah, honestly, it's a testament to not just our car, but just the FIA governing body, and then really driving that safety standards. Every time some accident happens or something less than ideal happens, we learn from it, then we make improvement. And then this year, again, part of the biggest challenge was the homologation of the chassis. The standard, what we need to pass for the crash test, has been raised massively. And then all these things are making huge difference, and I was really happy to see that Olli came out essentially just with a bit of bruise, which is a bit of an understatement, but still it's a testament to all the work that's done in the background.

It's really impressive to see. Now quickly back to you because we briefly spoke before this about your life here back at base. What does it look like for you? What is a 9 to 5 for you?

There's no 9 to 5. So there's that. Yeah.

What time does your alarm clock go off in the morning?

No, no, alarm clock goes off because of my kids. When I'm in UK, I do school runs in the morning because I'm away so often. It's really nice that when I'm back here in UK, I can take my kids to school first, then I come here. So I come here actually a bit later than everybody else. I make it here probably like quarter past 9, but then it's just, yeah, the day, honestly, it's very, very important to be present. And then really, because I spend half the time on the road, the time I'm back here, I really need to catch up on people, understanding what's going on, really listening to them. Because as I always say, if I'm disconnected from what's going on the ground, I cannot lead the team. So I really need to listen to them and understand what they need, you know, what I need to put in place for them to perform better.

It's been so impressive sort of seeing you kind of in this team principal role because for those who don't know, obviously you've come up the race engineer route, right? And we're seeing that more and more now, don't you think, up and down the paddock, kind of those— the mavericks that we used to have, you know, your Christian Horner, your Flavio Briatore, they're then that kind of role, your Eddie Jordans. It's not really there anymore. You're seeing more and more engineers becoming team principals. Why do you think that is?

I don't know. I don't think there's like a one-fits-all type of approach. I think every team— we got 11 teams on the grid and then each team's got different challenges, right? So again, that the way, for instance, McLaren set up, you got Andrea Stella as the team principal, Zak Brown as CEO, and then Zak takes care of business side, Andrea takes care of sporting side. And then it's not like that that model is going to work for everybody. That's clearly working for McLaren. And what we need in our team, you know, when Gene decided to appoint me as a team principal is partly because I've been here since day one. And then so we really needed to understand, you know, what's the strengths and weakness of this team? How can we harness it better? So I don't think there's one rule to say, okay, this modern F1, the team principal needs to be ex-engineer. I don't think so. But each team has got different challenge and also they all got different setups. RB is the same. Aranpamey, my old boss, he's the TP. But then they have a CEO, Peter Bayer, running the CEO side of the business.

Do you think it's actually a strength that you're a smaller team and that you know the team so well and you're at the top and actually it works more like a family that you all know each other and actually makes it run a bit more smoothly?

Yeah, definitely. There's strengths and benefits to it. There's always pros and cons, right? You know, and then in terms of our team, you know, because we are so small, If we not working as a team, if you are not completely integrated, working together, pushing things forward, we just stand no chance, right? And I'm sure bigger teams got its own challenge, but you know, our challenge is like, okay, we get best out of what we got, but then in the background, we need to keep improving the capacity, capability of this team. So there is definitely a growth, but for me, you cannot grow too quickly. You know, you got to really keep that, uh, Focus on what we are here to do and keep that efficiency and focus and keep growing at the manner which we can, let's say, sustain and keep that focus is very, very important.

So I wonder then, and this is a bit of a cheeky ask, but we've seen in the news last week that John Pérez Lambiase is going to make his way to McLaren in a couple of years. There's a lot of rumors about he could be another one that goes from engineer to team principal in the long run. Obviously Red Bull and McLaren, they are bigger teams, they've been around a lot longer, but for that kind of transition, if he sent you a text, what kind of advice would you impart?

I don't know if I can give any advice, to be honest. Like I said, you know, the situation at McLaren is very, very different to our situation. And also his strengths and weaknesses are, I'm sure, it's different to my strengths and weaknesses. Like, for instance, he's going to a new team, right? Whereas when I got my job here, I've been with the team for, what, 8 years, 7 years at that point. So I knew everyone. I knew the strengths and weaknesses of this organization. So his challenge be very different, but I'm sure he's a highly capable individual, so I'm sure he can, you know, he can tackle the new challenges very well.

Now, we've been talking about the fact that we've not had any F1 to watch the last couple of weeks. Have you had any sort of break, or have you just been working flat out?

No, it's very, very important to maximize this break. It's not really a break, but no, it's because Like I said, we are such a small team and then these challenges of facing the new regulation has been huge, right? So then like I said, it didn't just start over the winter. You know, we are doing a parallel development last year, so nobody really had time to really slow down. Everybody's been really working flat out trying to get the car to design, build, hit the shakedown, test, then 3 races. And then every time we send the car out, we are running something new, but we had to operate on the race weekend, right? So there's lots of things that we wanted to improve fundamentally, but we couldn't because we just had to support every single race weekend. So those are the things really we need to focus on now to put better foundation on so that we can hit Miami running at the higher, let's say, state.

Yeah, I mean, there's never really off time, is there, in Formula 1 in the modern time? But surely you've found a bit more time to do some rock climbing?

No, because I'm a bit injured at this minute.

No!

Not you as well?

No rock climbing, is it limiting you?

No, honestly, last time I went climbing gym was in actually Melbourne.

Ah, is that where you injured yourself?

No, no, no, no, I injured myself last week in this football team's training ground.

Ah, okay, less said about that the better then.

But seriously, like climbing, you know, I take my climbing shoes everywhere in the world, but like China, Japan with the session times, et cetera, I just haven't had any time, but I'm still trying to do training so that when I can hit the climbing gym, I can still climb.

You and Behrman both injured. It's not good.

No, but Ollie, you know, he had a 50G shunt, right? He came away better than me. You know, I didn't have a 1G shunt, but I still managed to tore my muscle. So it goes to show he's the athlete I'm not.

Yeah, exactly. Well, look, we're running out of time with you. As we've said, next race is Miami. It's been a great start to the year. We have only had 3 races. We're hearing all these things about tweaks to the regulations going forward. But just for you guys, hopes, dreams, expectations for Miami and onwards?

I think Miami is going to be a pretty tough challenge, I think, because, you know, these two races we couldn't do. I'm sure other people are planning to bring an upgrade on. So I'm sure people will be bringing lots of upgrades to Miami. So, you know, the pecking order, that can change a lot. And it's a sprint weekend as well. So again, having had, let's say, one month not racing to then hit the ground running FP1, which is only one hour. Then go for sprint quali. We just got to be on it from the word go. That's the challenge as well. And then let's see where we are in terms of competitiveness. But we just got to focus on ourselves, how we need to do our job the best as possible.

Brilliant. Well, look, Ayakamatsu, thank you so much for joining us. If you have a slightly taller, bigger front jack for Miami, it's me. So best of luck with that. And if you want me to be a driver, clearly— Gotta go on a diet. Thank you very much for that, Ayo. But really appreciate it. Thank you.

Good luck.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Harry, this is very exciting because Ayo has let us stick around. We're in a pretty cool location. We're also sat on the weirdest chairs ever.

Well, they're not chairs, they're wheels.

They're tires.

They are. And I'm a lot more stable than you are.

I could go at any minute.

And that's part of the fun.

That is part of the fun.

But he has also let me keep on.

You're gonna say keep the suit, but you know you can't.

Please let me keep it on, and I'm gonna see if I can just walk out the door when we finish with it.

I feel they will notice.

Quite possibly, but I'm gonna hedge my bets.

You're not very subtle as a person. You're sort of bigger than everyone.

Really? I'm getting a lot of heat today. Yeah, what? Yeah, well, speaking of, shall we, uh, should we talk about some hot takes?

Should we do some hot takes?

Oh, how's that for us?

Okay, I will do the first one for you. This is from Alex. Red Bull are in a spiral, losing GP, future team principal, question mark.

Well, I mean, we spoke about this a little bit with, with Ayakamatsu, didn't we? John Perelambeisi, longtime race engineer for Max Verstappen, bit of a legend, will be off to McLaren, not in that same role. It's going to be chief racing officer in, in 2028. So he's still actually going to stick around at Red Bull for a little bit longer before he actually goes. But I mean, You're right, it is a bit of a mass exodus at Red Bull spanning the last few years. You know, people like Jonathan Wheatley, Christian Horner, GP, now all gone. The talk is constantly Max Verstappen's going to go as well. But I think the GP, he's been there a long time and he is hugely respected and he's worked his way up through the ranks as well. He used to be at Force India back in the day in their different iterations. But I think what's most impressive about him is that he kind of He took on Max Verstappen from his first ever race where he won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. And together they've kind of formed this sort of formidable partnership where you hear them kind of bicker like an old married couple on the team radio. But that, I think, just means they get on incredibly well. He knows how to work and read somebody of the caliber of Max Verstappen. So future team principal? Absolutely. I think when he goes to McLaren, I wonder if it's going to be a bit of a slow transition phase where Andrea Stella might well be going on to pastures new, may want a new challenge, because part of GP's job at McLaren is going to be absorbing some of Stella's roles that he just doesn't have the time to do anymore.

Oh wow, so maybe that's true then. Maybe it is team— wow, interesting.

GP for team principal, maybe 2030.

Yeah, sure, lucky McLaren.

I know, I'd say that.

Yeah. Okay, would you like another one?

Go on, let's do it.

Uh, Jay says Alonso walks away mid-season due to ongoing horrible car vibrations, says life's too short. I mean, Alonso's never gonna walk away.

How much fun can it be though when you're not pounding around at the back, your wrists are hurting? Like, wait, he has now managed to see the checkered flag, but how much fun can that be? He's just had a kid. Yes, he's gonna turn 45 in the summer. I mean, I don't think he's lost any talent. It's all on Alonso whether he feels like he's still got enough to give. Yeah, but also, how do you stay motivated when This was supposed to be the year, right? Adrian Newey coming in, all the money in the world chucked at Aston Martin, and they're at the back.

It's not working.

And I think they will improve and they will get better. But is it going to be too little too late for Fernando Alonso? The longer this goes on for, the longer I'm inclined to agree. But then again, he's Fernando Alonso.

He's Fernando Alonso. What is F1 without Fernando Alonso? Can it exist without him at this point? I don't think it can.

F1 will cease to exist without Fernando Alonso.

Yeah.

I can see him becoming a team boss.

Oh my God, he would be amazing.

I reckon he— I hear Aston Martin might be looking for a new team principal.

Okay, this might be working out fantastic. Let's hope that that's what he's going to do and he doesn't actually leave forever. Next one, Emma. Now this is my favorite hot take that we've ever had: all F1 teams should enter one car for the Nürburgring 24 Hours or Le Mans with their drivers. Yes please.

Hard agree.

Unbelievable.

100%. I mean, they just had a GT race at the weekend where— because Max Verstappen's got his own team and he was there just kind of overseeing things and obviously know he wants to do the 24-hour Nürburgring and he's going to do it. Lance Stroll has now put his name in the ring to do GT racing. Well, can you blame him? He must— he wants to try and score points somewhere.

Fair.

I absolutely agree, because normally what, when that kind of racing, you get one car and you have like 2 or 3 drivers sharing it, right? So imagine we're at Haas. I'd back a Haas GT entry with Bearman and Ocon. They're both similar heights, around 6 foot, I think. That's what you want, similar seat sizes. Quick in, quick out. That's the transition you want. Hard agree.

Yeah, I love that. I'm all for that. And then from Joe, this is Russell's last season at Mercedes. Verstappen will retire and Hamilton will return to Mercedes. Wow. Triple whammy. Triple whammy.

Give me it one more time.

Russell's last season at Mercedes. No, I think I disagree there.

Well, does it become his last season at Mercedes if Kimi Antonelli suddenly becomes the boy wonder that he was built to be and absolutely wipes the floor with George Russell. These are all just hypotheticals. And then it's suddenly it's Antonelli's team. Does that force Russell to look elsewhere? Does he then go to—

where does he go? This is what I'm saying.

Red Bull's not as appealing as it once was. But if there's a gap, does he go? What was the rest of the take?

Verstappen will retire.

Well, I can see that happening.

We all know that's going to happen. Hamilton will return to Mercedes.

No, no, I think he ends. Hamilton ends his career at Ferrari. Ferrari.

Yeah, but not yet. He's not—

not yet. I think he's got a year or two left, but yeah, Hamilton ends his career at Ferrari. It's every boy's dream, every Formula 1 driver's dream, yeah, to race for Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel said that, and after that, Vettel went on to Aston Martin, and I think that was a bit of a damp squib of an end for him.

Wait, so maybe Hamilton will leave Ferrari at some point, and then maybe Russell to Ferrari? Oh, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, it could happen.

The driver market, I think majority of the drivers are out of contract at the end of this year. So I think the driver market, seriously, it could be mayhem.

Big old switch around. I'm excited.

Speak of Lewis Hamilton, Izzy, I don't know if you saw during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend. Now actually, you've driven a lot of cool cars. So has Lewis Hamilton. Have you driven, like Lewis Hamilton, a Ferrari F40 Tokyo Drift style?

I have not, and I'm very jealous.

I mean, he put this clip up on Instagram. It's incredible. But then there was one clip with just him, and there was another clip with somebody in the passenger seat. Kim K. Is that Kim Kardashian?

Yeah, that's a hard launch. And that's a hell of a launch in an F40 around Tokyo. That is so unbelievably cool.

You can't trump that as a date, can you?

Oh, he's absolutely nailed it.

When do you think she's gonna come to the paddock?

I was just thinking that actually. When are we gonna see her?

Which one?

Miami?

Oh, she's so gonna be in Miami.

Yeah, I feel like you get a lot of celebs at Miami. Yeah, she'll be in Miami with Lewis Hamilton. I think so.

Do we think she appreciates appreciated the F40 drive? Because I can't quite put into words how cool that was.

So, I mean, you've driven like cool Ferraris, maybe not quite the F40. Not quite the F40, thank you. But it's always great for the driver, but as more often than not passenger, dizzy. I've actually had Ollie Bearman take me around Silverstone in like a BMW M2 Competition, and I wanted to be sick. I needed a brown paper bag. It was that bad being in the passenger seat. So I don't think she had a good time.

But an F40. I think I would cry.

But hey, great for a bit of PR.

Yeah, very true. It's done its job. It is everywhere.

Well, we'll see who else. Actually, did you also see then that a lot of the drivers, they do this stuff for F1 at the start of the year where they get asked these questions, and one of them was, who, which driver do you think is most likely to be in a reality series?

I did see this.

And a couple of them, though, Lando Norris's name was floating around a fair bit. But again, timely because we're at Haas. Esteban Ocon, straight in there, keeping up with the Hamiltons.

Love that from him.

If that doesn't confirm Kim K, I don't know what does.

Yeah, that is—

do you agree? Do you think it's sort of Hamilton or Norris, or who would you put in a reality show?

I think, yeah, I would go at this point Hamilton. Yeah, I think people will say Norris because he's young. We could see Norris on Love Island.

I could.

Yeah, I could.

Yeah, but then you've got quite a few, like Kimmy's super young as well.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure he's the Love Island type.

No. Alonso. I would pay to see that if he retires this year. I would pay to see that on like I'm a Celeb or something.

Big Brother?

On the Bake Off. Okay, Alonso on the Bake Off.

Bake Off. Or, okay, final one: Traitors. Who would you put? Who'd make the best traitor? I think I asked Ollie Bearman this once and he had no idea what I was talking about.

Such a good question.

One of the best shows on the BBC and Claudia Winkelmann, excellent host. Traitor? Best traitor out of the entire grid? Oh, I put you on the spot here.

Yeah, because you've got to think who's going to be sneaky.

I wonder, I feel like an Alex Albon, you wouldn't know where to stand because he's so lovely. Yeah, he might stand your ground.

Or Carlos Sainz.

I was thinking Sainz, but I wonder whether you'd suspect him too much because he's very engineering-minded.

Yeah, Albon's sort of so nice that he'd be like a puppy dog. He wouldn't be a traitor, and then bam! He's a traitor.

Okay. Albon. Traitor.

Albon. Love that.

Nice. Right, that is all we have time for on today's Checkered Flag Extra. Next week on the Checkered Flag feed, Back at Base is going to be here giving you a behind-the-scenes look at all things Cadillac. So make sure you're subscribed to BBC Sounds. Just search F1 on BBC Sounds and you will find it there. And in terms of F1 action, well, we're in this break at the moment, but Five Lives coverage will be back in a few weeks' time across the Miami weekend. So look out across the network for live coverage of every single session. And it's a sprint weekend as well, so we get straight into it. But for now, I think we'll say goodbye, Izzy.

See you later.

Bye.

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