People

Kazutoshi Nishizawa

After grdauating in mechanical engineering Nishizawa landed a job with the elite Honda Research & Development Division at its headquarters in Wako, just outside Tokyo. He immediately went to work on engine development programmes and in 1982 was appointed project leader for Honda's F1 engine development programme. This led to him working as chief engineer with the Williams team in 1987, when Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell dominated the World Championship and in 1988 he was switched to Team Lotus.For 1989 Nishizawa left the sport and went to work as project leader on a variety of advanced vehicles, notably low emission vehicle development. He was recalled to Formula 1 in 1992 as part of the team which developed the normally-aspirated V12 engine but in 1993 was sent to the United States to assist the development of the CART engines. This led to his appointment as manager of Motor Sports Development and in 1999 he was appointed technical director of Honda Racing Development, to oversee the new Honda F1 programme.