Ayao Komatsu (born 28 January 1976) is a British-based Japanese engineer, and team principal. He is currently the team principal of Haas F1 Team, having previously served as the trackside engineering director.
Ayao grew up in Tokyo, Japan and studied there until he was 18. He came to Great Britain in 1995 to pursue the dream of working in Formula 1 by enrolling in the Automotive Engineering course at Loughborough University.
Komatsu started his F1 experience with a stint as tyre engineer for the now defunct BAR team, before becoming a performance engineer at Lotus. He remained with the Enstone team for ten years, moving up to become a race engineer and thus forging a strong relationship with its driver Romain Grosjean.
When Grosjean moved to Haas for the 2016 season, Komatsu followed suit, resuming his chief race engineer duties in a different uniform.
Following the departure of Guenther Steiner from Haas, Ayao Komatsu stepped up to fill Schneider's former role as team principal.