Impact of Haas’s COTA upgrades could be decided in the margins

Haas will bring what team principal Ayao Komatsu describes as “small updates” to the United States Grand Prix this weekend, but the fine margins in the midfield could increase their impact.

The majority of teams switched full focus onto their 2026 cars to such an extent that there have been very few upgrades introduced since the summer break. However, Haas will have some new parts in Austin this weekend, and Komatsu believes the team is strong enough to compete for a double-points finish at its home race.

“Honestly I don’t know, but we look at the problems in front of us, and I don’t see why we cannot be competitive,” Komatsu told SiriusXM. “But it’s just such fine margins all the time.

“If you get the tire compounds to work, or the car balance, or the downforce level right – every little detail we need to get right. So I think if we get everything right, I’m sure we can fight to have both cars in the points.

“We will bring small updates, but I’m not really counting on that. That’s not something massive. But again the margins are so small. We lost P8 in qualifying [in Singapore] to [Isack] Hadjar by four hundredths of a second.

“So for example even if we say the upgrade is only four hundredths of a second, that helps. But you have just got to focus and then try to get everything out of the car, and everything out of both drivers.”

Haas will also run a special livery at COTA (above and main image), but it’s the new parts – which can only be evaluated in FP1 due to the nature of the Sprint weekend – that are exciting rookie Ollie Bearman.

“It feels like we’re building momentum each weekend, we know the car is fast, and with another update coming to the VF-25 in Austin I feel like this should be a strong weekend,” Bearman said. 

“This will be my first US Grand Prix as a MoneyGram Haas F1 Team driver, so I know it’s going to be full on, but it’s so nice to soak in the atmosphere and passion from all the American fans. Sharing a mutual passion and love for this team and sport, COTA will be a highlight of this season, for sure.”