JUNE 15, 2006

A slight reshuffle at Honda

The disappointing performance of Honda F1 this year has led to a slight change of emphasis in the engineering team with technical director Geoff Willis now planning to attend fewer races to make sure that the aerodynamic programme pushed ahead, improving the current car and making sure that the new 2007 car is more competitive. His place at races will be taken by Belgian Jacky Eeckelaert who has been in charge of technical coordination between the team and engineers in Japan. Eeckelaert is a racer, having joined Honda from his previous role as head of vehicle engineering, test team and research and development at Sauber.

Eeckelaert is unusual in F1 circles in that he is qualified as both a chassis and a motor engineer and also raced himself up to Formula 3 level in the early 1980s. He has been in Formula 1 for 10 years, beginning as the engineer in charge of Peugeot's F1 testing program in 1996. He was then coordinator between Jordan and Peugeot and then moved on to Prost where he became chief engineer before moving to Sauber at the start of 2000.