Internal restructuring at Toyota

Toyota Motorsport has announced further internal restructuring to it chassis and engine departments as part of its ongoing endeavour to optimise human resources within its Formula 1 programme.

The specific function of "Technical Director" has been abolished in line with Toyota's belief that successful organisations nowadays follow an integrated structure, rather than relying on the direction of one particular individual.

In its place, the title of Senior General Manager has been introduced in both chassis and engine areas, a position which will be assumed by Pascal Vasselon and Luca Marmorini respectively. In these roles, Pascal and Luca will continue the day-to-day management and co-ordination of chassis and engine departments, whilst both working together and reporting directly to Yoshiaki Kinoshita in his position as Executive Vice-President of Toyota Motorsport and alongside Noritoshi Arai.

Pascal's function will encompass aerodynamics, chassis design, chassis R+D, race and test engineering and team management, whilst Luca's responsibilities will be extended to incorporate electronics in an effort to keep chassis and engine workloads finely balanced.

Tsutomu Nagashima retains the position of Senior Executive Co-Ordinator, but will take a more lead role within the chassis department and will work alongside Pascal. Nagashima will specifically head up all special projects, defined and jointly agreed with Pascal, in chassis, as well as managing the daily liaison with Toyota Motor Corporation and more specifically with Keizo Takahashi at Motor Sports Division.

President of Toyota Motorsport, John Howett said of the recent structural refinement: "Part of Toyota's genetic make-up constitutes the embodiment of teamwork. As such, we are always striving to empower each individual within the organisation to actively contribute to the ultimate goal, namely to one day win the world championship."

"We feel that this can only be accomplished by focussing less on the position of technical director, therefore we have decided to erase this position from our structure. Pascal and Luca have agreed to take over the replacement position of Senior General Manager in chassis and engine areas respectively and will continue to excel in these managerial roles. We are confident that these changes will significantly help our long-term internal stability and ultimately our on-track performance."

-toyota-