Haas will continue developing the VF-26 rather than immediately shifting all of its resources towards its 2027 Formula 1 car. Team principal Ayao Komatsu believes the American squad must first identify and solve the problems that have slowed its current challenger, arguing that abandoning them would risk carrying unresolved weaknesses into the next project.
Haas began the 2026 season in remarkable form, emerging as the third-fastest team on track across the opening three races. What followed, however, was a gradual and consistent decline that allowed several rivals to move ahead in the Constructors’ Championship, leaving Haas much further down the standings than its early-season performance had suggested.
Haas VF-26 development remains a priority
The trajectory has surprised Haas in both directions. Its opening performances were far stronger than expected, but the point at which its season began moving in the opposite direction was equally unexpected.
“Over the last two years, I think we’ve proven to ourselves and to the outside world that we’re capable of developing the car,” Ayao Komatsu said at Zandvoort. “We’ve got the right people and the technical department works. But obviously, the way we started this year was way beyond expectations. We shouldn’t have started like that. We shouldn’t have been ahead of Red Bull after three races.”
“But because it’s a completely new set of regulations, we knew there was going to be a huge amount of development to do and a huge amount of potential and performance to find. And for us to have even the slightest chance of keeping up with the others, considering the size of our team, everything has to be perfect. But that’s not realistic in anyone’s life.”
The relentless development race created by Formula 1’s new regulations has affected the entire grid. Rival teams have continued bringing changes of their own, including McLaren’s rear-end upgrades for the Dutch Grand Prix, underlining the challenge Haas faces in keeping pace throughout the season.
Montreal upgrade created new challenges for the VF-26
According to Ayao Komatsu, Haas did make progress with its Montreal upgrade, but the package did not deliver improvements in every area and also introduced compromises in how the VF-26 behaved.
“The Montreal update wasn’t perfect. Some components worked, some made the car faster, but others weren’t perfect. In fact, they also made the car more difficult to drive. So we’re learning from those lessons.”
That is particularly important in a season when Haas is competing against teams with significantly greater resources and their own aggressive development programmes. Mercedes, for example, has also been working to unlock more from its car, with Toto Wolff acknowledging that Mercedes still has untapped potential in the W17.
Why Haas will not switch everything to its 2027 F1 car yet
The Formula 1 season resumed last weekend at Zandvoort with the Dutch Grand Prix, an event that brought another important phase of the championship into focus. The weekend itself presented teams with a demanding combination of tyre, set-up and performance considerations, as outlined in the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix preview.
For Haas, the objective over the coming weeks is clear: identify the issues affecting the VF-26, understand them and find solutions. Only after that process has been completed does Ayao Komatsu want the team to devote all of its resources to next season’s car.
From his perspective, switching focus before Haas properly understands what is going wrong with the current VF-26 would achieve little.
“What’s the target for the rest of the season? For me, it’s the same as it has been for the last two years. We have to prove to ourselves that we’re capable of identifying the key problems, solving them and then putting that on the car to make a step forward.”
“Because some people ask me, ‘OK, now we’re where we are. Are we simply going to shift all our attention to 2027?’ For me, we can’t do that. Because I really believe you have to deal with what’s in front of you and solve the problem that’s clearly in front of us. You can’t run away.”
“If you say, ‘OK, fine, in 2026 we started well, but then we lost ground. It’s the first year of the new regulations. Fine, let’s move on and start thinking about 2027,’ we haven’t solved the fundamental problem. If we did that, we wouldn’t give people confidence. They have to believe in themselves.”
Ayao Komatsu sees confidence as key to Haas development
One of the central factors shaping Haas’s current approach is the confidence and unity the team has built over the previous two years. Ayao Komatsu believes continuing to confront problems rather than abandoning them is an important part of preserving that culture.
“That’s why we continued developing the car until the end of 2025, last year, even though we knew we would face a huge parallel challenge this year. For me, that was the right way to prepare ourselves.”
“Because at the beginning of this year, I expected it to be much, much, much worse. If you looked at it on paper, considering the situation of our team, we should have started in P10, just ahead of Cadillac. That would have been the normal expectation.”
Instead, Haas began the season dramatically higher up the competitive order. Ayao Komatsu believes the team’s ability to make that initial step was partly a product of the confidence established through its development work over the previous seasons.
“But thanks to the confidence we gained over the previous two years, we were able to develop the car and make progress. If people have the confidence needed to keep developing the car throughout the season, then once again the same principle applies: when you see problems, when you encounter difficulties, you have to stay united and believe in yourself.”
“It’s only by continuing to work this way, iteration after iteration, that you gain confidence. Genuine confidence. That’s what we’re doing.”
For Haas, the remaining 2026 races will therefore serve a purpose beyond simply improving its immediate results. The team wants to prove that it can diagnose the VF-26’s weaknesses, correct them and turn those lessons into tangible performance before its attention ultimately moves towards the 2027 car.
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