Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu explained that a lack of communication led to a double disqualification for the American outfit after the Monaco GP qualifying.
Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen had qualified in P12 and P15. However, after both their cars were examined after the session, they were disqualified from qualifying as their DRS wings opened more than 85 mm, which is the maximum allowed by the rules.
Komatsu explained how a lack of communication between engineers and the track team led to this mistake. Disqualification from qualifying means that both Haas cars will start last.
Haas decided to bring a different rear wing for the Monaco GP. With a change in the design, the mechanics had to take into account that a few changes while setting the maximum allowance for DRS opening had to be considered. However, this didn’t happen due to lack of communication, thus leading to a double disqualification.
“If the designers had made it absolutely clear that the design intention was slightly different from the wings you have been using before, so you have to check it in this way, that would have helped.
“But at the same time, even with other information, the trackside checks should have checked the whole legality surface.
“There was no performance gained, absolutely zero, but that’s not the point. The car has to be legal. So, we just have to accept this as a failure of the team, and then learn from it, and make sure we don’t make the same mistake again.”
Komatsu sees this issue as a lesson that the team needs to learn to avoid such costly mistakes in the future.
“For the designer who designed it, in his mind it’s clear: this wing is legal, but it’s got a different profile. So he needed to think, should I communicate that to make sure that other people who didn’t design the thing understand it?
“For the trackside people, if they had had that highlighted, it would have helped. But even without that, with a brand-new rear wing, just don’t assume anything. You just have to check every single legal surface: that’s what we should be doing.
“So again, a bit of complacency, a bit of assumption, without actually thinking ‘Okay, this is the new rear wing, it could be different.’ We just need to improve working as a team.”