There is no rapid solution for the 'essential' flaw in the Haas car.

      "Some of the solutions might be relatively short-term."

      Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu acknowledges that the 2025 car has significant issues. At the end of 2023, team owner Gene Haas was dissatisfied with the poor performance of the small American team, leading to the dismissal of Gunther Steiner, who was replaced by senior engineer Komatsu. While Haas made considerable progress last year, they have fallen back significantly so far in 2025.

      "It was a major surprise," Komatsu told reporters in Shanghai. "During testing in Bahrain, the car wasn’t perfect, but we didn’t anticipate anything nearly as problematic as what we encountered in Melbourne," the Japanese engineer stated. "Honestly, when the car first appeared during the initial practice, I thought there was either a failure or a serious issue. Once we confirmed that nothing was broken, we realized that we had a significant problem."

      On a positive note, Komatsu mentions that the team engineers "clearly understand" the shortcomings. "It’s a mix of aerodynamic oscillation and our rear downforce characteristics," he explained. "If it were just one of those issues, it would be manageable. However, when both occur together, it makes the car extremely challenging to drive."

      Regarding the negative aspects, "We need to determine which parts of the car require changes to address this performance issue," the team principal stated. "Some solutions may be relatively short-term, but others will involve an iterative process in both CFD and wind tunnel testing," he added. "You won’t see any solutions in the upcoming races. So yes, it is quite serious."

      One early suspicion is a potential issue with Ferrari’s simulator, which Haas also utilizes. Reports following the Melbourne race indicated that Ferrari’s initial troubles in 2025 were attributed to incorrect simulator data.

      "We added more performance to the car over the winter," Komatsu asserted. "We conducted simulations in the simulator, and everything seemed fine. However, when we reached turn 10 in Melbourne, it all fell apart. At least we discovered it early. Imagine if we had been underwhelming for five, six, or seven races before realizing we had a serious fundamental issue."

      "Everyone was taken aback. For some, it took a day to come to terms with the fact that we have a significant problem. Now, everyone is working hard to resolve it. No one is questioning whether we have a problem; we do," the Japanese engineer acknowledged.

      Komatsu emphasizes that Haas cannot simply disregard 2025 to concentrate on the entirely new regulations for 2026. "If you just ignore it and move forward, who can assure that similar issues won’t arise in the future?" he said.