The poor performance of Honda in various categories of motor sport last year, especially in Formula 1, eventually have consequences for the two main responsible for its sports program. Hideo Sato, the maximum leader of the motorsport division of the Japanese brand, and Yasuhisa Arai, the man who led the return of the Japanese brand to F1 - with terrible results - will be removed from their positions at the end of the day, but they have been informed of this decision internally.
The announcement will be made in Tokyo, tomorrow afternoon, the president of Honda, Takahiro Hachigo, but the names of Sato and Arai substitutes will only be known at the time. In the case of Hideo Sato, who is about to meet 65, the spacing is ultimately a way to send into retirement more or less dignified manner, because the services provided to the brand in the last 15 years deserve respect and can not be speak in a dismissal or demotion.
In the case of Arai the situation is different because he is far from having reached the end of his career within Honda, but will have to accept that his progression within the Japanese brand has come to an end. In recent months it was felt that his personal relationship with Hachigo, who worked under him in his early years at Honda, was enough to save his job, but the pressure of McLaren and the lack of development of the Japanese brand in late last year eventually dictated his removal.
From what we know Arai's successor has a solid career as an engineer in the engine division and competition from Honda, which is a good beginning, and is supported by the old guard - the veterans who were at the origin of the glorious turbocharged V6 and V10 normally aspirated who dominated Formula 1 between 1986 and 1991 - and was part of the group, of its own accord, set out to redesign the turbo unit current motive in absentia Arai direction and won the civil war, as the project leader Formula 1 was forced to accept part of the new turbo in his V6.
