New Haas team principal, Ayao has been in Europe ever since 1995, when he became a student at Loughborough University. He studied - and graduated - in Automotive Engineering. He worked in British F3, working first with fellow countryman Takuma Sato, with whom he also shares a birthday (Ayao is one year older). He first worked in Formula 1 with BAR as a tyre engineer, before joining Renault in 2006. In time, he became a race engineer to Vitaly Petrov and Romain Grosjean. His relationship to the latter was so close that when Grosjean joined Haas, Komatsu followed, but now in a trackside engineering role. He then became team principal in January 2024.

Biography last updated 28 Apr 2024