Impact of Haas’ COTA upgrades may be decided on the margins | RACER

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

The majority of teams shifted complete focus to their 2026 cars, to the extent that very few upgrades have been introduced since the summer holidays. However, Haas will have some new parts in Austin this weekend and Komatsu believes the team is strong enough to challenge for a double points finish at the home race.

“Honestly, I don’t know, but we look at the issues in front of us and I don’t see why we can’t be competitive,” Komatsu told SiriusXM. “But it’s always such small margins.

“If you get the tire compounds working right, or the balance of the car, or the downforce level right, we have to get every little detail right. So I think if we do everything right, I’m sure we can fight to get both cars into the points.”

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

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

Haas will also use a special livery at COTA (above and main image)but it’s the new features – which can only be evaluated in FP1 due to the nature of the sprint weekend – that make newcomer Ollie Bearman exciting.

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

“This will be my first US Grand Prix as a driver for the MoneyGram Haas F1 team, so I know it will be packed, but it is so nice to enjoy the atmosphere and passion of all the US fans. COTA shares a mutual passion and love for this team and the sport and will certainly be a highlight of this season.”