Haas team boss: Alonso has a talent that even F1 stars like Button lacked

(Motorsport-Total.com) - Twenty years ago, Fernando Alonso was locked in a thrilling title battle with Kimi Räikkönen – and a young tire engineer with a promising future was about to join Alonso's Renault team. Ayao Komatsu had made his entry into Formula 1 in the BAR-Honda test team.

This was during a period when manufacturer teams with high budgets were running two wind tunnels around the clock and fully staffed test teams were working alongside the race team during the season. There, he worked alongside drivers such as Jenson Button, Takuma Sato, and test driver Anthony Davidson.

In 2005, BAR-Honda's upward trend was halted by a scandal involving a second fuel tank. The team was disqualified after the San Marino Grand Prix and banned from two further races. At the end of the season, Komatsu moved to Alonso's Renault team, working alongside the newly crowned world champion.

Another level

Button's world championship title—even his first Grand Prix victory—was still a distant prospect at that point. For Komatsu, working with such an established, exceptional talent was a formative experience. "Back then, I was a tire engineer in the test team," Komatsu told reporters at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix.

"But the year before, I was in the same role at BAR-Honda, working mainly with Jenson Button. Anthony [Davidson] was there too. When I joined Renault in 2006, we obviously did the initial tire selection with the test drivers. But the final scrutiny, we often did that with the racing drivers—especially with Fernando."

"He's just on a different level. A completely different level. If you give him a tire and say, 'Okay, we need an 18-lap stint. In the last three laps, I want you to drive that pace—and use up the tire completely by the in-lap.'"

The all-rounder

"Jenson couldn't do it. He was miles away from it. He really couldn't. That's when I saw: Even for a Formula 1 driver, there's a limit. Fernando, I have no idea how he does it. He knows exactly how much is left in the tire. So he drives it at a certain level – and in the last three laps, he just goes: 'bang, bang, bang.' In-lap, sector 2 – the tire is dead."

"It was just a whole different level. I thought, 'Wow, that's a world champion.' That was a huge eye-opener for me. It was a pleasure working with him—it was incredible."

In addition to his ability to accurately assess the tires' remaining potential in the dry, Alonso also excelled at finding just the right level of grip in changing conditions. Komatsu cited the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix, ultimately won by Michael Schumacher in a Bridgestone Ferrari, as an example of Alonso's confidence on the Michelin tires.

Own decisions

"Shanghai race – he [Alonso] decided to switch to slicks himself," said Komatsu. "We all thought it was too early. But he's just able to make it happen. He's the kind of driver who has confidence in the conditions and the tires – right after leaving the pits, he can push the tire to get it working. That was impressive."

"But then we brought his teammate [Giancarlo Fisichella] in, I don't remember exactly whether it was one lap later or two, in much better conditions. But he [Fisichella] was just a bit more hesitant after leaving the pits. And he just couldn't get into the positive spiral. He lost so much time."

This is a slightly romanticized memory, however, because at that point, Alonso was already on the comeback trail: Renault had decided to only fit new intermediates to the front axle during the first stop. In addition, a jammed wheel nut during the change to slicks ruined Alonso's chances of winning.

Looked at screens when bored

Fisichella was in front and stopped six laps later, but lost the win to Schumacher because he was too hesitant in Turn 1 on his out lap. By the end of the race, Alonso had closed a ten-second deficit and overtook his teammate for second place.

Alonso's ability to read a race—not just the immediate action around him, but also what was happening elsewhere—was clearly evident at the Canadian Grand Prix. There, he was leading Räikkönen by 25 seconds in the closing stages when Jacques Villeneuve crashed into the "Wall of Champions" at Turn 13.

"He simply told us, 'Prepare yourselves, a safety car is coming,'" Komatsu recalled. "We had no idea how he knew. And he told us later: He was leading, bored, and watching the race on the big screens. He saw this massive crash and knew we hadn't seen it. So he told us. I mean, how much brain capacity does one have left?"