Ayao Komatsu shares Takuma Sato meeting that helped launch his F1 career

Haas Formula 1 team principal Ayao Komatsu has revealed the story of how a chance encounter with a young Takuma Sato and a borrowed quad bike ultimately led to his career in F1.

During his university days, Komatsu was starting out in grassroots British motorsport, helping to run a British Saloon Car Championship team for local driver Andrew Deahanti. At a race meeting at Silverstone, Komatsu spotted a young Japanese driver riding past on a moped in racing overalls. 

The driver was Sato, who was then competing in the national class of the British Formula 3 Championship for Diamond Racing. When Komatsu’s saloon car team unexpectedly found itself in need of a quad bike, he approached his fellow countryman to borrow one. 

After returning the machinery, Komatsu decided to stay and watch Sato’s race. 

“I remember one day we were racing at Silverstone, I was underneath the car changing the anti-roll bar, and then I literally just looked, and then there was this Japanese kid on a moped wearing a race suit, so of course, we said hello to each other. Japanese guys didn’t see each other much back then,” he told Essential F1.

“And then I didn’t think anything of it, but when we were going racing with this British Saloon Car racing for our race, we didn’t have a quad bike, so I said, ‘Ah he said he races in British Formula 3, he must have a quad bike,’ so I went to borrow his quad bike from his team, Diamond Racing.

“So I borrowed a quad bike, we did our race, and then returned the quad bike. I said, ‘OK, his race is soon, so I just go and watch it.’ He was in the national class that year.

“Then there was a guy called Martin O’Connell, Irish guy. He was very good, he was winning all of the national class races, but he had no money. But then I watched Takuma at Silverstone. He just beat him straight away. I said, ‘Wow, you know, you’re quick. You beat Martin O’Connell. He’s been beating everyone.’ Then Takuma said, ‘Really? I got the next race in Thruxton. Do you want to come and see?’

“And then I watched at Thruxton, and we talked and we discovered he’s just exactly one year younger than me. He said, ‘Next year I’m gonna do a championship class,’ and I said, ‘Next year I’m going to start doing my PhD, I’m interested in this and this, should we do something together?’

Revealing how that led to his career in F1, Komatsu added: “The next year in British Formula 3, I did every single test and most of the races again, doing lots of things. I was writing simulation optimisation stuff in my PhD.

“But I was testing it at the trackside with Takuma, actually gathering real data, tyre data, damper data. I worked with Dallara engineers to get chassis data. So all that combination between the theoretical side, mathematical side, and then a practical side, and then working directly with drivers like Takuma. And then in the first year, his team-mate was Ben Collins, ‘The Stig’.

“And then the second year was amazing. I didn’t do much in my second year because I really wanted to go back to focus on my PhD, but it was Takuma and Anthony Davidson.”

As he came to the end of his PhD, Komatsu found himself looking for a job.

“I couldn’t find a job, and then the offer I got in the end was a German Formula 3 Colin Kolles team, as a race engineer. I remember coming back from Germany meeting him, and he gave me an offer, like it’s great, I got a job as a race engineer in German Formula 3. Back then, it was competitive, but I didn’t particularly want to do it.

“Then when I got back to the UK, my phone rang, and that was Takuma, and Takuma said, ‘How did your job interview go?’ I said, ‘It’s OK, he gave me a job, but I don’t particularly want it.’

“Then he said, ‘Oh right, if you’re still open, Tanaka-san at the HRD wants to speak, are you sure?’ So I went to see Tanaka-san at the HRD, and then Otmar [Szafnauer] was the vice president, and then they gave me a job in 2003. So, then Takuma was test driver. Then in 2004, I transferred to BAR Honda.”

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