SEPTEMBER 5, 2007

Clark goes to Honda

Steve Clark, a engineer who has been working in Formula 1 since the late 1980s, is to join Honda Racing F1. He will be the head of race and test engineering. Since 2002 Clark has been at McLaren, running testing, but he has now decided to move on and is expected to join Honda in November.

Steve Clark, a engineer who has been working in Formula 1 since the late 1980s, is to join Honda Racing F1. He will be the head of race and test engineering. Since 2002 Clark has been at McLaren, running testing, but he has now decided to move on and is expected to join Honda in November. He will take the role currently held by Jacky Eeckelaert, the Belgian being moved back to his original position as the technical liaison engineer with Honda in Japan.

Clark was originally hired by Team Lotus in the late 1980s and worked with Frank Dernie. He then followed Dernie to Ligier in 1991 and became race engineer for Erik Comas and later Olivier Panis. In 1996 he moved to Arrows where he was involved in both research and development and race engineering before deciding to take a break from Formula 1 in 1998, going to the United States to engineer Alex Zanardi at Target Chip Ganassi Racing. The result was a dominant CART title.

Clark was then lured back to Europe, working with Sauber's Johnny Herbert in 1999 but returned to the United States in 2000 and 2001 with PacWest Racing before joining McLaren.

Clark worked closely with Honda's new chief aerodynamicist Loic Bigois when the two men were at Ligier.