Honda announce new bosses for F1 programme

Honda will revamp their Formula One programme at the end of this month, with current motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai moving on to a new role with the Japanese company before his retirement later this year.

Yusuke Hasegawa will take over from Arai as the new head - and chief engineer - of Honda’s F1 activities, overseeing the development, manufacturing and management of their F1 project.

In addition, as part of the organisational changes, a new director role will be filled by Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, who will supervise the entire F1 programme.

Meanwhile Arai, who reaches Honda's compulsory retirement age of 60 soon, will become Senior Managing Officer of the firm's research and development arm.

Honda returned to F1 racing with McLaren last year, when the team struggled for performance, particularly in the area of energy recovery, leaving Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button languishing at the rear of the field.