Koji Watanabe, the long-time boss of Honda’s racing actions underneath HRC, will retire on 1 January 2027, with Keiichi Yasuda appointed as his successor.
An extended-time Honda worker after first becoming a member of the Japanese marque in 1987, Watanabe grew to become the pinnacle of Honda’s racing division in 2022. In that point Watanabe oversaw the corporate’s merger of its four-wheel and two-wheel divisions in addition to its U-turn on the choice to go away F1, returning as a works companion of Aston Martin for the 2026 laws.
However Honda has now introduced Watanabe will retire on 1 January, with Keiichi Yasuda his successor as HRC CEO. Yasuda is the present Government Vice President and Consultant Director, and was beforehand head of HR at Honda’s racing division.
“This govt change is a part of a deliberate periodic personnel rotation designed to strengthen the administration construction in response to world transformation and to speed up enterprise enlargement for the subsequent era,” Honda said.
“It’s my honour serving as a president of HRC with the fantastic colleagues,” Watanabe mentioned.
“In 2022, I assumed the put up of President of the brand new HRC, unifying each bike and vehicle motorsport actions. Since then, we selected our return to F1, expanded our world motorsport construction by reorganising HPD within the U.S. into HRC US and establishing HRC UK, and labored on constructing HRC’s world model.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Photographs through Getty Photographs
“For the remaining three months of my presidency, I’ll proceed to do my utmost, aiming for victory till the very finish.”
Talking on his new function, Yasuda mentioned: “I take into account it my mission to firmly inherit the stable basis constructed by Watanabe.
“Evolve it additional, unite everybody’s vector towards the one objective of successful in races, and make HRC even stronger.
“Leveraging my administration expertise as president of abroad native entities and my background in HR, I’ll concentrate on investing in individuals and strengthening our organisation towards victory.”
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– The Autosport.com Staff
