Ayao Komatsu has described the TGR Haas F1 Team’s expanded relationship with Toyota as fundamentally different from a traditional title partnership.
Instead, the Haas Team Principal has framed it as a long-term technical and organisational collaboration rather than a branding exercise.
Toyota Gazoo Racing steps into the title role for the 2026 season, with Haas having taken part in its shakedown running in Barcelona last week.
The motorsport division of the Japanese car manufacturer has been a technical partner of Haas since 2024, and part of the new, enhanced deal will see the two brands continue to work together away from the track.
Komatsu described the arrangement as built around shared technical ambition and organisational growth.
“It’s not a normal branding exercise at all,” he told Sector during a pre-season media session.
“They’re not interested in branding. They don’t need us to advertise their brand. Everybody knows who Toyota is. It’s mainly about technical collaboration and growing people together.
“F1 is an amazing environment. You can’t find such an international environment in any other industry which is such a fast-moving sport or industry. The things we change in Formula 1, that takes two or three weeks. In a normal industry, I think it takes two or three months.”
They don’t need us to advertise their brand. Everybody knows who Toyota is. It’s mainly about technical collaboration.
Ayao Komatsu
A central element of that collaboration is simulator capability, something Komatsu admitted Haas would not have been able to advance at this pace without Toyota’s involvement.
“We’re doing a simulator project together with Toyota. With our setup, without this collaboration, it wouldn’t have been possible,” he added.
Komatsu revealed that Haas is in the process of installing a simulator at its Banbury base while simultaneously integrating its models into Toyota’s simulator facility in Epson, allowing both organisations to benefit from shared development work.
“We’re really working on that, installing a simulator in Banbury at the same time as integrating our models in their simulator down in Epson.
“The idea is, in the mid-season, once we have the simulator installed in Banbury, we can use it straight away.”
He added that, in hindsight, the team would have preferred to begin the collaboration earlier given the scale of the opportunity it presents.
“If I had a better choice, I would have started this even six months ago, one year ago. But it’s just the timing of where we are,” Komatsu said.
“Things like that wouldn’t have been possible without this collaboration. So it means a lot to us, and it’s definitely not just a naming or branding thing.”
For Haas, the Toyota relationship therefore represents more than a headline partner announcement. It signals a structural investment in tools, infrastructure and technical depth designed to strengthen the team’s long-term capability rather than simply adding commercial visibility to the car.
