Coventry-supporting Japanese has used his rebel streak and risk-taking instincts to spur on Oliver Bearman this season
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here is no one quite like Ayao Komatsu in Formula One. Haas’s Japanese team principal, a rugby-playing Coventry City fan who left his home country to escape the constraints of conformity, is F1’s rebel without a pause.
As Haas enter their first home race of the season in Miami this weekend, they are on no little roll. Fourth place in the championship is the highest position held by a US team after three races in the sport’s history and Komatsu has engineered it in a sport he once viewed as his great escape.
“Fortunately or unfortunately, I was very rebellious,” explains the 50-year-old, who grew up in Tokyo. “I was just very unhappy about education, authorities, adults. I didn’t like that part of the culture. You ask questions and curiosity wasn’t something that was actually encouraged. I really hated that, so I really wanted to get out of that world.”
