The team finished last in 2023, but it has risen in the standings and has plans for next season, including new drivers.
Haas finished 10th, in last place, in 2023, scoring 12 points. This season the team is in seventh and has scored 54 points.
"Very positive, uplifting, successful, enjoyable," Ayao Komatsu, the team principal, said of 2024.
Komatsu, who has been at Haas since its creation in 2016, became the team principal in January, replacing Guenther Steiner.
Entering 2024, Komatsu targeted finishing eighth in the team championship, but he said that he initially felt "there's no way we could be anything but P10 [10th place] -- just pure logic, right?" Haas is also the smallest team, with a head count of around 300, compared with over a thousand for top teams.
"That wasn't me sandbagging or being pessimistic or conservative or anything," Komatsu said in an interview in November. "We didn't start the development of the '24 car at the earliest opportunity. We stopped for two months [to make the] Austin update last year that was never going to work, and it didn't work. So we are the smallest team, started late, and we stopped for another two months, so I had to assume we were miles behind."
But Haas produced a solid car and fixed tire-degradation issues that plagued its 2023 car, while profiting from other teams struggling.
"I cannot count on people like Sauber not developing the car well, or Alpine breaking the chassis, Williams being overweight," Komatsu said. "In Bahrain we understood that three teams actually are not in a good shape. So we had to take advantage of that. But even then, to get from P8 to P7 took some time. Then we were in P7 for quite a long time."
Komatsu spent time gaining a greater understanding of Haas' various departments, owing to how the team is set up. Its race operations are in Banbury, England; its design office is in Maranello, Italy; its chassis manufacturer, Dallara, is in Parma, Italy; and the company's headquarters is in North Carolina.
"I feel like my job is a facilitator," Komatsu said. "I shouldn't be telling people what to do. I should be listening to people, then understand what someone needs from their department to do their job better." That included setting clearer company objectives.
On Komatsu's to-do list has been recruitment and expansion across multiple departments, while in 2025 -- aided by more prize money from its improved championship position -- it should operate at Formula 1's cost cap.
"Next year is going to be the first time in the 10 years of Haas F1 Team that we're going to be, I wouldn't say profitable, but we can stand on our two feet," he said.
Haas has an engine deal with Ferrari through 2028, and in October it announced a new technical partnership with Toyota. The company will help Haas technically and provide a simulator program at Banbury, while Haas will aid Toyota in training young drivers.
"At the moment our team is operating at the absolute limit," Komatsu said. "So if anything happens, we are just surviving. With Toyota's help, in terms of resources, in terms of understanding capability, hardware and the sponsorship money, we are raising the constraints away, so that in the normal mode of operation we are not about to saturate.
"Like let's say if we have brake issues on the car, we just haven't got proper resources to really try to grab hold of the problem, understand the problem and solve it without affecting the day-to-day operations."
Komatsu expects Toyota's influence to be felt in performance starting in 2026, when new technical regulations will be introduced, though the partnership should help in areas where Haas has shortfalls.
Haas' evolution extends to its new driver lineup. Esteban Ocon, 28, and Oliver Bearman, 19, will join the team. Ocon will be the first Grand Prix winner to race for Haas, while Bearman, the Ferrari protégé who raced three times this year as a substitute and scored points twice, will race in his first full season.
"We actually feel like already Ollie is part of the team," Komatsu said of Bearman. "Esteban will be new to the team, but I've known him for a long time now. I think everybody is excited about this new pairing."
Ocon crossed paths with Komatsu a decade ago, when he was a test driver at Lotus, where Komatsu was a race engineer. Ocon said he liked where the team was going.
"I really hope -- and it's fantastic to see -- they continue the trajectory upwards, and what they're doing at the moment is really nice," he said.
One of the team's current drivers, Kevin Magnussen, who will be replaced, joined the team in 2017.
"It's kind of double feelings because it's nice to see that the progress is now visible," he said. "At the same time, of course it would be frustrating if they were getting podiums and everything next year, to not be there for that."
This has been one of Haas' best seasons, but Komatsu is aware of the wider picture.
"It's great that we are where we are," Komatsu said. "But if you ask me, can we repeat this P6 consistently year on year with exactly how we are set up now? The answer is no. So what we're doing now, not just with Toyota, but with everything, is to then really make the clear step on the team that when nobody else messes it up, we can still be P6. And then once we achieve that one, then we can look for another step."